Jail terms needed to set an example

Waiting for the Hawks to start arresting those linked with corruption has been like waiting for the drought to break. And, as with the weather, sometimes the first showers can mean little over the long term.

So, while we are quietly optimistic over the arrest on Thursday of former state security minister and member of parliament Bongani Bongo, we won’t get over excited just yet.

That’s because, as one cynical observer put it, the current South African justice system resembles the “catch and release” process which is well known by anglers.

Bongo was arrested for 13 counts of corruption after he allegedly offered an evidence leader a bribe to derail the Standing Committee of Public Enterprises Inquiry into the affairs of state-owned entities in 2017.

And, not surprisingly, he was released on bail. The amount was just R5 000, which does make you wonder whether bribery is a “low value” offence in this country.

The arrest could, as some experts have predicted, be the first of many. And we would welcome that development. But there is another way to look at Bongo’s arrest – that it is to keep public opinion damped down and that life for the ANC – the organisation at the heart of the majority of allegations of looting – goes on as normal.

If high-profile people are rounded up, what chance is there that they will spend much time behind bars? Recently, former public protector Thuli Madonsela shocked many when she said she believed that incarceration for crime was “not the African way”…

The point about arrests and jail terms is not solely that they punish the guilty and give vengeance to a wronged society, important though that is.

These sentences must also act as a deterrent to others – or we will never be free of the millstone of crime and corruption.