Two lessons from abroad on how to bring our rainbow back
For South Africa to flourish, three inspirational new appointments are needed in Treasury, the prosecuting authority and the revenue service, writes Tony Leon
ISRAEL is one of a few countries that can serve as an example to the South African political establishment of how to burnish its human rights credentials.
For reasons of solidarity and expediency, or simple inattention, such gross rights violators as Venezuela, Zimbabwe and Syria — where political protestors are shot, imprisoned or gassed — escape both attention and censure.
Thus the chairman of parliament’s portfolio committee on international relations and co-operation, Siphosezwe Masango of the ANC, declared on May 16 both his “applause” for and personal participation in an initiative to fast in solidarity with 1 500 Palestinian prisoners who have undertaken a hunger strike in Israeli jails.
Masango said this action “places our country at the centre of the global fight against injustices and human rights abuses”.
I suppose any discovery of our lost human rights credentials is to be welcomed.
But given the free passes his committee has provided to so many egregious transgressors of citizens’ freedoms across the globe, he might find limited appreciation for his act in the wider world.
Among the list of local luminaries who participated in the solidarity fast were some well-known names who have spoken up against state capture and the looting of government assets and institutions that have become the depressing and daily features of our national life.
Cyril Ramaphosa, Gwede Mantashe and Derek Hanekom appear on both lists: outspoken in support of the Palestinian prisoners in the assertion of their rights against their Israeli captors, and equally vocal in their determination to stamp out corrupt practices at home.
I imagine, therefore, that Israel is probably the last place they would look to find a solution to interdict state crime and corruption and prosecute the highest offenders.
I happened to be in Israel two weeks ago when the political prisoner issue and fight against corruption assumed centre stage .
Israel, ironically, has the South African situation in reverse: that country is far worse than we are in addressing its meta-issue — in its case, a peaceful solution to the Palestinian question. On the eve of the 50th anniversary of the Six-Day War and the occupation of the West Bank, and despite President Donald Trump careening across the Middle East this week, a final settlement seems very far away.
But on the issue engulfing South Africa right now and threatening to denude our famous 1994 settlement of its best prospects and essential meaning, government corruption — or in Ramaphosa’s words, the rise of a “mafia state” — Israel provides no end of lessons: amid the Holy Land’s inability to grasp the Palestinian nettle, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is subject to an intense police investigation into alleged corrupt practices. He might or might not escape prosecution.
But there is no chance that his high office and long service will provide a shield against criminal charges if the evidence is unearthed for a likely indictment.
The track record proves that this ministerial rank is no place to hide.
The former president, Moshe Katsav, was jailed following his conviction for raping and sexually assaulting former female assistants. Former prime minister Ehud Olmert is in prison after he was convicted of fraud and breach of trust and tax evasion.
Unlike South Africa, it is not necessary for Israeli opposition parties to rush to court to have the prosecution charges reinstated against an erring president.
Those charged with the prosecution of criminals can be relied upon to do their jobs.
A fiercely independent attorney general’s office, coupled with effective policing and a comptroller (or public protector), offers no favours — indeed, the reverse — to the political high and mighty.
Perhaps that is one reason why Israel, despite the bad neighbourhood in which it exists, outranks South Africa by some 36 places (28th versus 64th) on Transparency International’s 2016 Corruption Perceptions Index.
But if Israel is an uncomfortable place to seek comparative solutions for home-grown corruption, fellow Brics member Brazil might be a more congenial fit.
It is striking that Michel Temer, the second president in a year of South America’s continental giant, last week faced calls to resign after he was implicated, alongside dozens of other ministers and officials, in a corruption scandal engulfing the country.
So far, about 100 leading politicians and businessmen have been convicted. Last year, his predecessor, Dilma Rousseff, was impeached amid congressional pressure and street protests, which could be Temer’s fate.
Equally possible is that the legal process — rather than a political procedure — could do him in.
The Brazil Supreme Court has authorised an investigation into Temer’s case. Currently, according to the Financial Times, a third of his cabinet colleagues are under investigation.
Temer is an apparatchik thrust into the presidency by circumstance.
But if any one politician in Brazil assumes the equivalent of rock star status, it is Rousseff’s predecessor Luiz Inácio da Silva, known universally as Lula.
When he left office, he was acclaimed with hosannas from his compatriots and the world. He was the rough-hewn local equivalent to Nelson Mandela.
His iconic status has not saved him from the jaws of the prosecutorial process in Brazil, however. In mid-May he, too, appeared in court in a case flowing from the investigation into state-owned oil company Petrobras, whose corrupt practices and bribery make the shenanigans around Eskom seem like chump change.
Although Lula has vigorously protested his innocence and announced he will run again for the post of president next year, he faces one huge hurdle.
The judge presiding over his case is Sergio Moro.
He is a fearsome corruption buster with an impressive track record. Sending dozens of politicians to jail in the Petrobras scandal has made him one of the most popular figures in Brazil.
Over dinner last week with a local legal luminary in Franschhoek during its annual literary festival, talk turned to the usual topic that consumes politically aware South Africans these days: who will the ANC elect as its president? Can he rather than she save South Africa? Are the ruling party and the country so firmly on the road to perdition that it makes no difference?
The guest made an interesting intervention: just imagine, he speculated, if the next president appointed Billy Downer as national director of public prosecutions. It might be recalled that he has 30 years in the prosecution service and was at the forefront of inner voices there urging the NDPP not to drop the criminal charges against Jacob Zuma.
Already vindicated in recent court cases, when the Constitutional Court weighs the dubious decision on the charges, Downer will be an inspired choice.
In fact, who better to appoint to lead the charge, from the top, against the politically corrupt?
And, in the ethically hobbled and utterly demoralised South African Revenue Service, why not appoint Thuli Madonsela, famed former public protector, to the top post? She will collect the revenue honestly and will not shield the politically connected.
Finally, in a country which has produced some breathtakingly successful business leaders, making any one of a dozen of them minister of finance would send the most powerful of signals to the investor community and the ratings agencies, that we are indeed open again for business and that the agenda is inclusive growth.
This happy national dream is, of course, a nightmare for those who have profited from the plunder of the state without care or consequence. Let’s just see if it is a winning ticket in December and beyond.
Leon is a former leader of the opposition and was South African ambassador to Argentina
It is not necessary for the Israeli opposition to rush to court to have the prosecution charges reinstated