Trial against Zuma opportunity to flesh out skeletons
A trial date has been set for former president Jacob Zuma to answer to charges of fraud and corruption.
National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) head Shaun Abrahams’s decision to prosecute Zuma after nearly a decade since Mokotedi Mpshe dropped the charges is a victory for the principle of accountability.
The trial against Zuma has a number of dimensions.
First, the trial presents an opportunity to finally get to the bottom of the allegations that have dogged Zuma throughout his tenure as president of the ANC and of the Republic.
His conduct in relation to payments made by Schabir Shaik into his bank account – the very same act that got Shaik convicted for corruption – will be placed under scrutiny.
It will put to rest all the speculation about the nature of Zuma’s relationship, not only with Shaik, but with his many alleged financial benefactors.
It will also lay bare the extent of his propensity for corruptibility and give him an opportunity to explain himself.
Secondly, this trial will peel back the layers of institutional decay in the state. This trial will unravel the logic and gradual institutionalisation of corruption in the state.
It will show that the phenomenon of state capture in democratic SA, particularly at the level of head of state, cannot simply be reduced to a problematic relationship between Zuma and one family, the Gupta family.
It is, rather, a pattern of the systematic entrenching of clientelism in public-private relations that preceded the aggrandisement of the Guptas, who are only one among a long line of beneficiaries.
The trial will assist to flesh out the state capture skeleton unearthed by academic reports, investigative journalism and ad hoc processes that have popularised it.
Taking place alongside the commission of inquiry into state capture, it will provide a point of reference through which the public may make sense of the extent and nature of the state capture phenomenon post-apartheid.
Thirdly, law enforcement will also be on trial. The proceedings will shed light on the politicisation of institutions such as the Hawks (including its predecessor, the Scorpions), the NPA as well as the National Intelligence Agency.
Throughout his crusade to get the charges against him dropped from the time they were first intimated, Zuma and his legal team have proffered the theory of a political plot against him.
They have been consistent in maintaining that Zuma is a victim of the illegal use of state machinery by then president Thabo Mbeki against a political opponent.
Of course, this argument has been found wanting. But this does not preclude it from forming a part of Zuma’s defence moving forward.
Something can definitely be said about a culture of trying to play to the interests of a political elite that has taken hold in institutions that are supposed to function under the strictest obligation of impartiality.
Lastly, this trial will test the ANC’s consensus about not being seen to sympathise with those among its ranks who are implicated in unethical conduct and corruption. This will be difficult to enforce as there is historical precedence to the contrary, ironically in defence of Zuma himself.