In a recent Sunday Times article (20 March), Sipho Pityana, former Director General of the Department of Labour, now businessman and founder of Casac (Council for the Advancement of the Constitution) calls on the public to join him in his anti-corruption campaign, to promote clean governance and ethical conduct by those who occupy positions of power and influence in both the public and private sectors.
Casac proposes "the establishment of an independent statutory agency whose three-pronged mandate would be to educate the public about corruption; investigate all forms of corruption big and small, fearlessly and without favour; and devise strategies to prevent corruption."
Casac demands, furthermore, "that visible, decisive, clear and resolute steps be taken to end corruption wherever it occurs." Obviously referring to the President Jacob Zuma and his sordid connection to the ubiquitous Guptas, he says that despite the rhetoric of zero tolerance against corruption, "all too often there is cover-up and obfuscation."
I have written many columns against corruption but somehow I feel resentful of this initiative when I should be supporting it. The reason is to be found on the opposite side of the page of this same newspaper.
If ever there is cover-up and obfuscation it is from his colleague and founder member of Casac, former Speaker of Parliament Frene Ginwala. Interviewed by Chris Barron in his usually refreshing, no holds barred manner, he asks Ginwala all the right questions about her role when the corrosive Arms Deal, the controversial matter of the Scorpions and the cloak and dagger cover-up of the Travel Scandal, were brought before Parliament.
Her responses epitomize the obfuscation Pityana campaigns against. Defensive and blatantly evasive, she takes no responsibility for her partisanship under Mbeki's rule, and for keeping the lid on all these scandals that erupted under her leadership of Parliament. Even her attempts to shut up then MP Patricia De Lille exploded in her face with a court ruling.