True test of our democracy

JACOB Zuma has at last been granted his long-held wish to have his day in court – after waging an unprecedented legal battle at taxpayers’ expense for almost 10 years to avoid just that.

Yesterday, National Director of Public Prosecutions Shaun Abrahams announced his office had decided South Africa’s fourth president will face 18 charges of racketeering, corruption, money laundering and fraud.

These are the same charges based on 783 counts of alleged corruption that were scandalously dropped by then- NDPP Mokotedi Mpshe on the basis of the so-called “spy tapes”.

So much has happened since then. The NPA, for one, has effectively been neutered, with Abrahams derisively known as Shaun the Sheep for his meek refusal to act against the former president.

Indeed, a court case had been under way to prevent him making this decision after a court ruled he shouldn’t have been NDPP in the first place.

The biggest story of the intervening decade, though, was state capture – the industrial-grade looting of state- owned enterprises, allegedly by Zuma, his political cronies and his friends the Gupta family – which eclipses the arms deal corruption with which he is now being charged.

The difference is that, given the successful prosecution and conviction of Zuma’s erstwhile financial adviser Schabir Shaik on mirror charges of corruption, this case against our former president is pretty much formulated.

The last nine years have been marked by scandalous abuse of power, state interference, state capture, corruption and collusion and yet, here we are.

The bottom line is that South Africa has emerged from a dark tunnel, blinking into the light. Our institutions work. Our society works. We must just continue our journey of self-correction. We dare not squander this opportunity.