Corruption and State Capture are not new and didn’t start in 1994 or with Jacob Zuma, and neither did they end after he left public office. It has been found to be endemic in our state and business institutions. Zuma merely gave government corruption a face and a dance, and Markus Jooste became the poster boy for corporate corruption in recent times.
The non-profit organisation Open Secrets has shared the archives of where the apartheid government got its funding, what it did in exchange for it and how that shaped the country and its institutions.
A while back I gave a talk about the impact of State Capture on the ordinary person as a way of showing that it is not a victimless crime, as Zuma once claimed. The claim was obviously designed to detract from several charges levelled against him by the National Prosecuting Authority, including 12 counts of fraud, four counts of corruption, one count of money laundering and one of racketeering.
Some may have conveniently forgotten this inconvenient truth, but many of us haven’t – which makes it all the more staggering to see where the former president’s latest reinvention has landed him.
The candidate lists of the political parties contesting the 29 May elections are out now, and if you weren’t convinced about our moral leadership vacuum, the contents of these lists might help you along.
The very president who was mired in generally corrupt dealings and forced to step down because of the collective pressure of citizens, civil society and his own party, the ANC, and thereafter did a short stint in prison is back – and he’s looking for your vote.
This time he appears as the controversial uMkhonto Wesizwe party’s number one candidate, which implies he is looking to get your X next to his face on the ballot paper.
So the question then is: What kind of system would allow someone of that low calibre the chance of getting back into public office? Surely someone seeking to ascend to high office must be of unimpeachable standing? However, perhaps the issue is not only to look to political parties to ensure this, but also at the rigours of our elections mechanisms and regulations.
Zuma is a prime example of people who are implicated in and found guilty of wrongdoing being shuffled from position to position without facing any real consequences for their actions. Someone like him should not be allowed the opportunity to get close to the helm of state institutions again.
Activist organisations produce report after report and recommendation after recommendation. I know, because I’ve read and written about them – Corruption Watch on the public sectors most vulnerable to corruption, Open Secrets on the private sector and economic crimes, Lawyers for Human Rights on the state of migrants and refugees, the Treatment Action Campaign on the health sector crisis.
Just two weeks ago the civil society working group on State Capture released a report calling for the urgent implementation of the Zondo Commission’s recommendations, especially as we head towards the elections.
Yet now it seems we’ll be experiencing an unpleasant case of déjà vu on our ballot papers. But who’s listening? DM
Footnote: Since writing the column, the IEC has announced that Zuma wass not allowed to stand for election. He can still appeal that decision.
This article first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick newspaper, DM168, which is available countrywide for R29.
