Arrests promise welcome new dawn of action against high-level corruption

When former state security minister Bongani Bongo stood in the dock on Thursday morning, his worst nightmare had come true. Two years after advocate Ntuthuzelo Vanara laid a charge of attempted bribery against him, Bongo was finally brought before court to answer to the allegations that he tried to influence the outcome of the parliamentary probe into alleged corruption at Eskom. He was in Cuba when police summoned him, apparently receiving treatment for suspected poisoning. He was made to sit in a cell like the criminal suspect that he is.

Bongo and the rest of the corrupt elements in the radical economic transformation faction of the ANC have gotten away with so much that they never imagined the long arm of the law would ever reach them. It’s been a long, frustrating wait for those who want to see the law take its course. Individuals with dark clouds of corruption over their heads continue to occupy positions of influence in the ANC and the government. Some were beginning to doubt President Cyril Ramaphosa’s resolve to act against corrupt individuals, especially those within his own party.

But the process was never going to be easy. It had to start with the cleanup of the criminal justice system. When Shamila Batohi took over as national director of public prosecutions she talked tough — but there was no immediate action. However, the wheels of justice now appear to have begun grinding. The first target, in May, was Zandile Gumede, the former mayor of eThekwini, who would never have been dragged to court had the outcome of the ANC’s 2017 Nasrec conference been different. Allegations about her corrupt ways were rife in eThekwini. But as long as she had friends in high places, there was no will to test the accusations in court.

Bongo was not the only prominent suspect the Hawks sank their talons into this week. Ten people suspected of being involved in the Eastern Cape toilet scandal were nabbed — five years after our sister publication, the Daily

Dispatch, exposed the alleged corruption by the

Amathole district municipality. The scandal involves individuals close to powerful politicians. As the arrests were being made, rumours circulated of other powerful individuals being on the Hawks’ radar.

These arrests are welcome and will go a long way to restore confidence in the criminal justice system. The years of impotency and inaction at the Hawks and National Prosecuting Authority are over. Hopefully we will see more of these arrests. The Hawks and the NPA must go after not only officials — who are often acting on illegal orders — but also the politicians who issue those orders.

The evidence is being revealed daily at the Zondo commission. The crooks who helped the Guptas raid Eskom, Transnet, the SABC and government departments must be rounded up. The Guptas must be extradited to face the music alongside their enablers.

Those who fear going to jail are already mobilising their supporters, claiming that the recent arrests are part of a political strategy to neutralise Ramaphosa’s opponents within the governing party ahead of the ANC national general council next year.

But South Africans are not fools. Just look at the dwindling number of Zuma supporters who still show up when the former president goes to court in connection with his corruption case. Fewer and fewer South Africans swallow his protestations that the charges against him are part of some political conspiracy. Those who benefited from Zuma’s network of corruption and patronage are likely to take a similar line; South Africans must side with the law-enforcement agencies and demand that they answer the charges in court.

The Hawks and the NPA must pay no attention to the noise and act without fear or favour. We have a history of state organs being used to fight political battles, but it’s time for a new chapter in which wrongdoers get their comeuppance.

The years of impotency and inaction at the Hawks and the NPA are over