OVER TO YOU, DEPUTY PRESIDENT… OR RESISTANCE AND CAPTURE IN SOUTH AFRICAN POLITICS
A damning report has been compiled by well-respected academics and a seasoned investigative reporter. The word “coup” features prominently. The report titled The Betrayal of the Promise: How South Africa is being Stolen provides factual information and draws linkages between a powerful political elite and business individuals. It reveals a toxic cocktail of patronage and corruption, all the while seriously undermining the constitutional state. Its biggest takeaway: State institutions are being repurposed to the detriment of all South Africans.
The Report follows hot on the heels of another released last week by the South African Council of Churches (SACC). The SACC’s report too, references statements from current and former government employees on how individuals closely linked to the highest office in the land have gained control of some state-owned entities.
This follows the 2016 report into allegations of state capture, in which the erstwhile Public Protector, Thuli Madonsela, recommended that the Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court appoint a judge to preside over a commission of inquiry, to further probe the allegations. In response to this, the President - whose name features quite prominently in the report - filed an application to review the State of Capture Report before the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria. One of the grounds for review that he raises is the fact that in terms of section 84(f) of the Constitution, he is the only person who can appoint commissions of inquiry. This is factually correct. But what happens when the President is so conflicted that his appointing a commission of inquiry into his own conduct would elicit, rightly so, accusations of in-built bias? Should this conundrum suggest then, that it is impossible for there ever to be a commission of inquiry to investigate allegations of wrongdoing by a President?
The South African constitutional state is on its death knell. If not for the involvement of the courts and a relatively free press, it would have keeled over into a failed state - like so many other states, whose examples are all too obvious. Nonetheless, the signs suggesting a rapid slide into the usurpation of the democratic will of ordinary South Africans are on the wall.
This is neither to the time to be coy, nor is it the time for platitudes. Bold, decisive action should be taken to arrest the deepening rot. In line with the view advanced by Paul Hoffman writing for the Daily Maverick, this calls for the Deputy President, using the powers granted to him in the Constitution, to intervene, and to intervene without a second’s hesitation.