Daily Dispatch

Impunity for state hijackers

THE second century AD Roman poet Juvenal, troubled by the question of who could be trusted with power, famously asked “Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?” (Who will guard the guardians themselves?)

It is a question that troubles us still. South Africa’s constitution makes much of accountability, particularly of the executive and public administration. These are endowed with great power over the national resources which should be used for the greater public good.

Our constitutional democracy is created on the basis that nobody is above the law. The answer the South African constitution gave to Juvenal’s question of “who should guard the guardians” is parliament.

It has oversight over executive action and all organs of state. It exists to detect and apprehend abuse, illegal or unconstitutional conduct and to hold government to account on how taxpayers’ money is spent.

The theory is sound. So what has gone wrong? Central to accountability and effective scrutiny is the principle of consequences for those in power who are corrupt, who abuse power and who plunder public resources. Otherwise what is the point?

Yet evidence of the most mind-boggling corruption and criminality continues to swamp us daily. An out-of-control executive, headed by a delinquent president has been doing what it pleases and it continues to do so with impunity.

It has overseen financial bailouts of stateowned enterprises (SoEs) which it has helped – through direct action or inaction – to bankrupt. Numerous reports and the leaked Gupta e-mails expose massive looting and crooked dealings in all SoEs, including Transet, the Passenger Rail Company of SA, South African Airways, Denel, SABC and Eskom which we now know paid almost half a billion to a Gupta-based company with which it has no contract.

Despite all of this not so much as a ripple of consequence is discernible in the pool of ANC governance. The so-called independent Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, better known as the Hawks, appears oblivious of the deluge of corruption. And the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) head Shaun Abrahams has evidently buried his head deep underground in the misguided belief that no one can see him either.

Thanks to the national media and #Guptaleaks, the entire country knows who bears individual and collective responsibility for dozens of criminal offences. Yet the buck, fanned by executive indifference to the plight of our country, flutters around unable to find a place to descend, here, there or anywhere.

Meanwhile, Zuma has the audacity to declare that he will not resign because if he did the “West” would capture the ANC.

Too late. There’s little left to capture. The auctioneer’s hammer came down long ago, when the president sold out his organisation and the country to outside bidders.

That citizens are forced to be the observers of a heinous hijack that continues to unfold is simply unacceptable and more than sufficient proof that the electoral law needs to change.