LAYING BARE THE ANC’S PRIORITIES
It took the party just months to kill the Scorpions, but years to do anything to help South Africa
Say what you will about Jacob Zuma, but the man knew the importance of using power when you have it. Zuma understood that he had to prioritise certain actions and move fast. It is something his comrades in the ANC have not learnt, even with power about to slip through their fingers at the next general election.
In the early 2000s, when his chommie Schabir Shaik was convicted of corruption and he was charged with taking bribes, Zuma understood that he could not do much about the charges themselves. What he could do was to destroy the Scorpions, the crime-fighting unit vested with special powers not generally accorded to the police. Zuma ruthlessly campaigned to unseat his rival, Thabo Mbeki, and to control the ANC. He won the party presidency in December 2007. Within five months the ANC, guided by Zuma, had pushed through parliamentary processes that destroyed the Scorpions. By September 2008, the unit was dead. It was an extraordinary feat in South African lawmaking, where legislation typically meanders through white papers, green papers, committee meetings, public hearings, amendments, parliamentary debates, legal opinions, and cabinet signatures and approvals over decades. Zuma prioritised.
In 2008 at least 60 people were killed, hundreds injured and thousands displaced by xenophobic attacks which started in Gauteng and spread to other parts of the country. It was one of South Africa’s most shameful moments. The attacks on innocents made it clear that South Africa had a complex immigration problem. What did the ANC government do? The ministry of intelligence at the time blamed a “third force” that was trying to destabilise the country. And we sat on our hands.
The truth was that South Africa had supported Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe. That drove thousands of desperate Zimbabweans across our northern border. It was clear then, as now, that the government had to do something. It continued to loudly support Mugabe. It also did nothing about South Africans’ appalling attitudes of superiority towards fellow Africans. Now, xenophobic attacks are an everyday occurrence.
Last week home affairs minister
Aaron Motsoaledi unveiled what Business Day referred to as “the biggest overhaul of South Africa’s immigration in a generation”: the white paper on citizenship, immigration and refugee protection. The draft policy, now open for public comment, provides a framework for the granting of residency and citizenship to foreigners, as well as the protection of refugees and asylum seekers in South Africa.
Why did it take so long to grapple with a problem that is now a crisis, you may ask. By the mid-2000s business in South Africa was begging for a system that attracted talent from our neighbours, while civil society bodies were asking for secure borders that ensured that those who came to our country were processed properly and humanely. The government did nothing. According to the white paper, it was a “mistake” not to have curtailed socioeconomic rights extended to asylum seekers and South Africa must temporarily withdraw from international agreements on refugee protection.
The ANC did not use the power it had in 2008 to fix the problem. Now we are playing catch-up, trampling on basic human rights, because when we had to use our power (to call out Mugabe), we did not do so. African refugees are here because we have consistently failed to call out the dictators and men of war on our continent. We even helped Sudan’s Omar al-Bashir evade arrest on war crimes charges.
Where am I going with this? Thirteen months ago, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that the National Prosecuting Authority’s (NPA’s) Investigating Directorate would be made a permanent body with powers such as those of the disbanded Scorpions. ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula has consistently backed him, saying in June: “What the ANC must advocate for is the strengthening of law enforcement in the country. So, comrades, we are not wrong when we say go back to the model of the Scorpions.”
We still don’t have a Scorpions unit. Instead, we have a draft NPA Amendment Bill meandering through parliament. Clearly, fighting corruption is not a priority for this administration. Just as the crisis of migration and xenophobia isn’t. If they were, changes to the law would sail through as swiftly as the destruction of the Scorpions back in 2008.