South Africa’s problems have not just arrived — they have been created and exacerbated by the lost decade of Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma. A decade that gave rise to the emptying out and purging of State-led organisations of competent and effective people, the looting of billions and the circumvention of the rule of law in order to serve very narrow interest.

As the 2019 national and provincial election looms, South Africans are provided with very poor choices at the ballot box. We are in fact sabotaged by these elites. Elites that are fully funded by South Africa’s tax base coupled with the illicit pillaging of the state and the continued willingness by these characters to conflate the distinction between state and party.

The conflation continues today, even though the lost decade has ended. However, the rebuilding and the extent of the damage has often been discounted — and it continues to be underestimated.

The sobering truth is that South Africa and its sovereign health has been damaged, and damaged to the very foundations of our constitutional democracy. Corruption and subversion have crippled the ability of the country to manage and deliver services to the people. It has subverted the work of the law enforcement and prosecutorial agencies and has propped up criminals (driven only by greed and self-interest, coupled with ill-suited skills) drafted into positions of power and authority.

The consequences of this are underestimated, especially as South Africa’s criminal justice system is unable to react effectively. We see this playing out in the African National Congress and the ongoing chatter around its candidate list.

We further see the consequences of this inaction being played out in the fightback currently underway by those aligned to the State Capture project (who were not simply aligned to that project, but the architects, engineers and foot soldiers of that seditious activity). These characters have a vested interest in protecting themselves and thereby the State Capture machinery. This battle plays out within the state, within provinces as well as in local authorities. The consequences are reflected in the failure of the government to deliver.

The renewal that has been spoken of by President Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa cannot simply be rooted in rhetoric in an election year, but rather South Africans must begin to see the situation for what it is.

South Africa is fundamentally fractured. The unravelling was not accidental or caused by outside parties, but caused by South Africans who are still in positions of power and authority. Our criminal justice system remains unable to confront these individuals head-on and instead has targeted people such as Angelo Agrizzi, which may in itself have been an attempt to instil fear in others who intend to testify in the various commissions of inquiry into corruption.

The fightback will continue far beyond the outcomes of the 8 May election. The stakes are far too high for those implicated in the State Capture project to simply allow the law to take its course.

This should not surprise those in the team focused on building South Africa. It should not surprise Ramaphosa and the Thuma Mina project. However, the shenanigans around the ANC’s candidate list is a sobering reminder that the machinery of our state is being misused and subverted in order to protect individuals and their activities from scrutiny and accountability. The ongoing electioneering will not resolve this issue nor will the outcomes of the national and provincial elections.

The outcomes of the various commissions will still require extensive action by the South African Revenue Services, the South African Police Services, the National Prosecuting Authority as well as other specialised law enforcement and prosecutorial agencies.

The “arc of justice” will not simply bend towards a just and moral outcome. The corrupt elite and the self-interested, epitomised by the State Capture project, will not patiently allow this to take place.

South Africa’s renewal and rebuilding cannot be left to the political machinery of South Africa, especially as the fightback will not take place in the open.

The machinery of the state will be used. The power of the shadow state will descend to direct particular outcomes, and the balance of power does not appear to be in favour of Ramaphosa.

South Africans wrestle with ongoing financial pressure, an uncertain economic outlook and continued pressure and encroachment by the unravelling at Eskom and other state-owned entities.

Issues of inequality, poverty and unemployment remain fixed, and stubbornly so with real consequences to the lives and futures of millions of South Africans.

The electoral cycle is not providing any meaningful solutions to those issues. We have not unravelled the challenges at the National Prosecuting Authority, Prasa, Eskom, South African Airways, PetroSA, the Central Energy Fund, the South African Revenue Service or any other ailing state-led entities. We remain unable to meaningfully confront these challenges.

The damage is so extensive that the unravelling will require much more than a reconfiguration of the Cabinet, but instead will require an extensive, invasive and surgical analysis of the rot so that the full extent of the shadow state can be uncovered.

The steps required to properly rebuild South Africa will require a complete relook and rethink around how South Africa functions, and in particular how power is managed and executed. DM