Brazen disregard for law, accountability

THE president thus failed to uphold‚ defend and respect the constitution as the supreme law of the land.”

This is a transcript from the Constitutional Court ruling on Nkandla read by Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng in March last year. It is established that President Jacob Zuma failed to do his constitutional duty.

It would seem that Zuma’s conduct is replicating itself in government. Recently, the Gauteng MEC for Health, Qedani Mahlangu, ignored informed advice and transferred psychiatric patients illegally, to ill-prepared and unregistered NGOs. The glaring disregard for human life and law by this MEC, who is by the way handsomely remunerated by the state, resulted in the needless death of more than 100 patients. This is a massive blot in the history of our nation which must never be forgotten!

However, we now apparently face one of the biggest “crises” in the country since the advent of democracy, caused by a member of cabinet, who is also the ANC Women’s League president and a staunch Zuma supporter – the Minister of Social Development Bathabile Dlamini.

In spite of a 2014 Constitutional Court ruling which declared the grants payment contract with Cash Paymaster Services invalid, the minister failed to ensure the court’s directive was upheld.

The ConCourt had instructed the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) to reissue the tender for the distribution of social grants or for the agency to prepare to make the pay outs themselves – the sole purpose for their existence.

The deadline for the CPS contract to end was set for March 31 2017.

But Dlamini failed to make sure that Sassa was ready or that another contract was in place. Rather, she deliberately and systematically sought to frustrate all efforts to formulate a rescue plan. Meanwhile, in the background, she started renegotiating an extension of the invalid CPS contract as far back as December last year assisted by no other than Zuma’s personal lawyer Michael Hulley.

And then, called to account to parliament, the minister not once, not twice, but three times ducked and dived. Most recently yesterday.

The result is that the entire country is in uproar. There are fears of a huge and unnecessary disruption of the payment of 17 million social security grants on April 1.

Meanwhile, it would seem that the nation is about to be saddled with a continuation of the highly problematic services of Cash Paymaster Services for at least the next year, even though this has been declared unlawful by the ConCourt.

This is a daring disregard for the country’s constitution. It is unthinkable that such a situation should have arisen, yet we are all now living the nightmare.

The kind of government that Zuma leads or eh . . . misleads, has become a government in his own image.

The same disregard he demonstrates for the constitution is manifesting throughout his administration. Arrogance, incompetence, lawlessness and impunity abound.

But it should not come as a surprise that a leader or a ...eh, misleader like Zuma would produce such an administration. In fact, it was predictable from the onset. The deployment of Zuma to the presidency by the ANC had nothing to do with his ability to lead. Rather, the choice of this so-called “man of the people” was actually due to his ability to play the victim and appeal to the hearts of voters who sometimes see themselves as victims of history.

Unfortunately, victims tend to produce victims. The victims of Marikana, the victims of the Life Esidimeni disaster, of xenophobia, of crime, of corruption, of a woefully dysfunctional education system, of factionalism . . . all are victims of Jacob Zuma and his version of the ANC.

Even as we speak, Zuma still plays victim, seeking to redirect all blame onto “white monopoly capital”.

Never satisfied with playing the victim himself, he is attempting to reproduce that victim mentality in all of us in the hope that we too will sympathise with his “plight”.

And what plight is that exactly? The Gupta billions or . . . eh, maybe the 783 pending corruption charges?

The fact is, our president is a devouring wolf seeking to cover himself in a sheep’s skin!

Pressed by eNCA’s Karyn Maughan’s legitimate questions about the Sassa crisis, Dlamini went ballistic, uttering these telling words, “But ..eh, how should we account about a people that are on sick leave? You are really . . . eh, ill-treating us!”

A press conference about a pressing issue is supposed to be where answers are forthcoming, yet the minister too has suddenly become a victim!

It is dishonest and unacceptable that Dlamini seeks to play the victim in a crisis for which she is responsible. The real victims are 17 million grant recipients and the public that is saddled with footing her salary.

But no South African need remain a victim, nor should we ever be hoodwinked into sympathising with those who pretend to be victims whilst they are devouring wolves!