The Internet never forgets

When the Zuptas have gone, a lot of parasites will be looking for work. But their crimes will be remembered

There’s a fascinating ethical debate unfolding in Europe as EU lawmakers tackle Google about the so-called “right to be forgotten”. If you did something in life that was picked up by a search engine and the circumstances have now changed, European law allows you to request that those search results be deleted.

Like all ethical laws, there are terms and conditions — you may have got yourself into debt but have now paid it off — but you should be allowed to ask the Internet to forget you. Or, more specifically, to ask search engines to no longer index those results that name you.

But here’s the thing — especially if you’re a corrupt government minister or, it seems, anyone who has done business with the Guptas — the Internet never forgets.

History will look back on cabinet ministers such as Malusi Gigaba and Bathabile Dlamini and remember them in a harsh light. This applies even more to Brian Molefe, Ben Ngubane, Duduzane Zuma and the stooges who have bent to the corrupt will of Jacob Zuma. Their actions will never go away. All it takes is a Google search to unveil their dastardly deeds.

Google the Passenger Rail Agency of SA’S trains scandal and the name of deputy finance minister Sfiso Buthelezi comes up. Google Waterkloof air base and disgraced former head of state protocol Bruce Koloane is implicated. One day he will no longer be the ambassador to the Netherlands, and will try trade on his good name and reputation . . . oops.

All the scoundrels who have broken their oaths of office and of good governance will one day be without Zuma’s protection. His term as ANC president is up this December and this makes his status as the country’s president less secure. Unlike in the case of Thabo Mbeki, the ruling party might prove too cowardly to recall Zuma. The ANC has had nine years to rein him in, but was too afraid to stand its moral ground; or, worse still, was in on the looting.

But the Internet never forgets.

One day when Zuma is gone — and, perhaps, imprisoned because the new president has reenergised the Hawks and National Prosecuting Authority — these spineless corrupters of the Rainbow Nation will be left exposed to history and its glare.

There are no press conferences on Wikipedia to try to explain, as Molefe so inanely and self-incriminatingly did, that there is a shebeen in Saxonwold.

So in about 18 months, where will all these people find work?

Maybe I’m being naive, but a man can dream. When the patronage network dries up and the Guptas and their puppet in the Union Buildings are gone, there are going to be a lot of parasites out of work, unable to pay for the fake lifestyles and holidays to Dubai.

And everyone will know their disgrace, how their hands were in the till, and how they got caught.

History will judge them harshly.

The Internet never forgets.

The ANC has had nine years to rein Zuma in, but was too afraid to stand its ground