Our democracy is under attack, but the good guys are winning 

2 November 2016

My fellow South Africans,

Our democracy is under attack. Our Constitution is under attack. Our Treasury is under attack. Our state-owned companies are under attack. 

Our President, Jacob Zuma, is doing his very best to help the Guptas plunder even more of our money. That’s his part of the robbery deal – to hand the crooks the keys to the safe and then look the other way.

But let me be clear here: State Capture cannot be blamed on one crooked family. The Guptas just spotted the opportunity and took it. If they hadn’t, Jacob Zuma’s ANC would have found another willing co-conspirator.

We are being robbed by the very people who are meant to look after us. But judging by the events of the past week, things aren’t going so well for the bad guys.

First the NPA’s Shaun Abrahams had to make an embarrassing about-turn on the trumped-up charges against Minister Pravin Gordhan.

And yesterday Zuma and his co-captured suffered yet another court defeat in the State Capture Report case.

Yes, our country is under attack. But make no mistake – the good guys are winning.

Built into our Constitution is the principle of accountability, and we have national consensus on this. Even if the corrupt elite don’t agree, the rest of us do. It is our duty to defend the Constitution and demand this accountability.

Because without accountability, many others will follow the example of Jacob Zuma, and this will cost us dearly. Shaun Abrahams’ foolish actions have already made South Africans poorer.

But if Shaun Abrahams thinks he’s off the hook because he dropped the charges against Minister Gordhan, he must think again.

Shaun Abrahams only dropped these charges because the pressure from all sides was unbearable. Not because he had a change of heart. Not because he applied his mind. He did it because he had no choice.

The charges should never have been there in the first place, and they never would have stood in court. Shaun Abrahams knows this.

He knows he is being used as a pawn in Jacob Zuma’s game, and when he’s no longer useful he will join his discarded comrades under the bus.

The dropping of the charges against Pravin Gordhan is a small victory in one of many battles, but the war against Zuma’s state capture project still rages on.

Jacob Zuma and the Gupta crooks still think they are going to take charge of our Treasury and loot our country, but they are very much mistaken.

They underestimated the DA, they underestimated the public and they underestimated our judiciary. Zuma and the Guptas certainly know they have a fight on their hands.

And one of their big weapons – the man they put in charge of the NPA to fight their battles for them – has turned out to be a complete flop. Shaun Abrahams has bombed on the big stage.

The situation with our captured NPA is a real mess, but there is one positive to have come out of it: Captured cadres are being flushed out in droves.

Under the glare of the spotlight of our courts, people like Shaun Abrahams cannot hide. He has no choice but to show the world who he is and what he is.

He is what is known as a useful idiot – someone who is used by powerful players to fight their battles for them.

But Shaun Abrahams is by no means the only useful idiot hanging around Zuma and the Guptas. There are plenty more, and they too are being flushed out every day.

Yesterday a full bench of the North Gauteng High Court sent Zuma and two more of his useful idiots packing when they ordered that the DA’s application to intervene in the State Capture case be granted with costs.

The thought of this State Capture Report being made public was enough to bring all the Gupta cabinet ministers crawling from the woodwork to try and prevent its release.

If it weren’t such a serious matter, we’d be laughing at the inept way in which Ministers Des van Rooyen and Mosebenzi Zwane had to blow their cover when they thought the report would expose their Gupta ties.

Their last-minute attempts to interdict the report, and the way in which the court dismissed them with contempt, played out like a bad comedy. They might as well wear large Gupta signs around their necks from now on.

The good guys are winning, while Zuma and his crooked cronies continue to lose.

My fellow South Africans,

This march today is not just about supporting Minister Pravin Gordhan. This is about standing together, as a nation, and standing up to the corruption that threatens to destroy us.

This is about letting Zuma, the Guptas and all their useful idiots know that their days are numbered. 

As for Shaun Abrahams, he has no choice but to resign immediately. I know he has said he won’t resign. But to be fair, he’s been saying a lot of things recently only to change his mind the next day.

Shaun Abrahams has dragged the NPA through the dirt in his attempt to please and appease Zuma. He has disrespected the institution, and he has disrespected each and every South African who looks to the NPA for protection under the law.

He must go. And if he doesn’t fall on his own sword, then the President must suspend him pending an inquiry into his fitness to hold office.

This won’t be the first time the DA has got rid of a captured head of the NPA. We’ve done it before with another Zuma yes-man, Menzi Simelane, and we’ll do it again with Shaun Abrahams.

We will not rest until our prosecuting authority is headed up by someone with the right credentials for this important job.

Someone who doesn’t do the bidding of the corrupt and powerful.

Someone who will act with integrity and independence.

Someone who will respect the decisions of the courts and reinstate the corruption charges against President Zuma.

Until that happens, we will continue to fight for the independence of the NPA. We will continue to fight for the protection of the Treasury. And we will continue to fight against every attempt to capture and loot our country’s resources.

Jacob Zuma and his useful idiots didn’t expect to run into this resistance. But we are Team SA. We are a proud nation, committed to the values of democracy and our Constitution.

Jacob Zuma and his cronies have met their match. We are here in court today to fight for the release of the State Capture Report, and when we have it we will hold each and every one of them accountable.

Because that’s what our hard-fought democracy deserves.

Thank you.

Issued by Mabine Seabe, Spokesperson to the DA Leader, 2 November 2016