Despite our much-vaunted "Proudly South African Campaign", when it comes to crime, South Africa has very little to be proud of. With 2100 assaults recorded just in the Western Cape over three weeks in December, and 1555 deaths in road accidents during the festive season alone, not to mention our murder, robbery, and rape rates, then we are a criminal haven indeed. Alarmingly, the Department of Transport's full scale road safety campaign was no deterrent as citizens continued to defy the law even at their peril.
Criminologists and psychologists are wracking their brains to try and understand why we are so lawless. But the answer is really simple. Our defiance stems from a national psyche nurtured by a corrupt state under both apartheid and ANC majority rule. Shaped by apartheid, our psyche has deteriorated under ANC rule - a political party that embodies no respect for the rule of law and which has cultivated an ethos that has systematically destroyed constitutional bodies designed to uphold the rule of law.
Appointing unqualified cadres, such as Menzi Simelane, and now Nomgcobo Jiba, to head up the National Prosecuting Authority, proves my point. Other party loyalists have destroyed the Judicial Services Commission, the South African Police Services, the Human Rights Commission, and the moribund Gender Commission, to mention just a few.
Worse, from the president down to the members of the legislature, ongoing lawlessness has become second nature to politicians. President Mbeki, for example, set the precedent by using state institutions to fight his rival Jacob Zuma, in the process destroying most of them. President Zuma, despite his opposition to Mbeki, manipulates state resources in similar vein.
He has appointed incompetent and under-qualified people to head up some of our most prestigious constitutional bodies, with the obvious intention of weakening them. Control of the ‘levers of power, is possible only when those who are appointed to them are under a cloud. It is when comrades have dirt on each other, that absolute control over them is possible.
Remember the Travelgate Scandal. It exposed how corrupt the inner sanctum of Parliament was. Instead of firing the implicated MPs, Speakers Frene Ginwala and Baleka Mbete, kept the lid on this sordid saga, knowing full well that should all those implicated be charged, the dissolution of Parliament would in all likelihood have been a possibility. Add to that, Baleka Mbete, former Deputy Speaker of Parliament, who was found guilty of obtaining a car license fraudulently. For her sins, she was promoted to Speaker of Parliament, while her whistleblower, John Muller died in penury and obscurity.
Judge Hlophe with a track record of legal misdemeanours, second to none, is still Judge President of the Western Cape made putty in the hands of the state should they ever need him to protect them.
Snuki Zikakalala, he of media notoriety, has virtually destroyed the SABC but the ANC clung onto him until the centre of the public broadcaster dropped out of its bottom. Not to forget old Jacki Selebi, our former National Police Commissioner, who arrogantly claimed - "my hands are clean" despite the appearance of his underworld liaisons writ large on our television screens.
Just when we think we have reached saturation point with displays of government impunity, MEC Kgothule gets off virtually scot-free, with a minimum fine, for speeding over 200kms per hour, retaining his post as provincial minister. In this poisoned atmosphere, sails the indefatigable Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. Warrant Officer Jannie Odendaal and Constable Abel Twala, doing their duty by intercepting the Madam's reckless driver, are abused and humiliated, turned into villains when they were merely enforcing the law without fear of favour.
Turning on the police officers, the dishonourable Winnie bleats "Do you know who I am?" They should have said "Yes we do. You are a serial offender and violator of the rule of law, dressed up as Mother of the Nation!" They should have hand-cuffed her and her body guard and put them in jail where they belong. William Gossett reminds us that "the rule of law can be wiped out in one misguided, however, well-intentioned generation." Similarly, Dwight Eisenhower warned that the clearest way to show what the rule of law means to us in everyday life is to recall what happens when there is no rule of law. Zimbabwe, here we come!
Rhoda Kadalie is author of In Your Face: passionate conversations about people and politics, 2009. This article first appeared in Die Burger, January 18 2011
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