TIME TO SEIZE THE MOMENT AND ACT

DURING his first appearance at the state capture commission yesterday, President Cyril Ramaphosa invoked the spirit of the 1996 Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and likened the current commission to the hearings that took place 25 years ago.

Indeed, the TRC offered South Africa a chance to come clean and break away from its dark past of apartheid. The state capture commission presents a similar opportunity – to some degree – to break away from the corruption of the “state capture years” or, as Ramaphosa once described them, the “nine wasted years”.

But will he and his leadership in the governing party truly and fully grab this opportunity? Is the party’s leadership even capable of doing so?

Ramaphosa made an adequately convincing start at the commission. Testifying as president of the ANC, in his opening statement he correctly repeated the party admission that it “made mistakes, as it sought to execute the mandate given by the voters” and that it “fell short of expectations” with respect to “enforcing accountability” and “consequence management”.

He admitted that the ANC’s leadership doesn’t always live up to the values and principles that defined the movement over the more than a century of its existence.

“But we all acknowledge that the organisation could, and should have, done more to prevent the abuse of power and the misappropriation of resources that defined the era of state capture,” Ramaphosa testified. He went on to commit to working “alongside all South Africans to ensure that state capture is relegated to history”.

Only time will tell if, indeed, the president and his leadership are serious, willing and able to honour these promises and commitments. Can he ensure that state capture will “never, never, never ever occur again”?

It has been a long time since the ANC’s 2017 national conference, at which Ramaphosa was elected president and made promises of renewal.

But the more such promises are made, the more things seem to stay the same.

The Zondo Commission does indeed present South Africa with another watershed opportunity.

But are we about to break with our dark and corrupt past?

Only time will tell.