Gupta affair even more horrifying than Nkandla

MY FELLOW South Africans, we are in a crisis. The seriousness of the situation cannot be overstated. The highest court in the land endorsed the public protector’s report and found President Jacob Zuma to be in violation of the constitution, which impugns his integrity and honesty.

But the allegations regarding the Gupta family’s relationship with the president are, if possible, even more horrifying.

The president stands accused of giving private business interests influence and control over senior government appointments.

He stands accused of selling the South African government to the highest bidder. The implications of these allegations are more devastating than Nkandla.

Consider for a moment if the president were to give such power to a foreign government. It would constitute treason. What is deeply disturbing is that the president and the ANC are following the same pattern of behaviour as they did when the Nkandla accusations first emerged: the president is being defended at all costs.

The Nkandla affair has cost this country so much time, money, effort and pain because the president refused to acknowledge the correctness of the public protector’s findings and recommendations and fought for his survival until the bitter end. And now, the Gupta allegations threaten the same. Can we afford to be trapped in a quagmire of scandal and in a fight for survival for the president?

In a recent meeting between religious leaders calling for the president’s removal and the ANC’s Gwede Mantashe, Jesse Duarte and Zweli Mkhize, among other senior officials, I said they had a moral obligation before G-d to ensure that the president is recalled or resigns.

I said they would have to one day answer before G-d for their actions, or lack thereof.

For the sake of the more than 50 million South Africans there is so much work which needs to be done to alleviate human suffering.

The president is unable to function for two reasons. First, for any person to serve as a leader of a people, moral authority is the most basic requirement. And Zuma has lost the moral legitimacy to lead and to govern the people.

He stands accused by his own Deputy Finance Minister, Mcebisi Jonas, of treasonous behaviour – surrendering the sovereignty of the democratically elected government to unelected private interests.

Second, given the sheer breadth and depth of the corruption allegations levelled against him, it has surely become a full-time job for the president to defend himself against them. He must simply be too busy and distracted to be able to apply his mind fully to his job.

By supporting him, the ANC has destroyed the very essence of what leadership is about: serving the people – and not self-enrichment.

It is not about using public money for building an extravagant house and using power to enrich yourself and your family. It’s not about putting the interests of a political party ahead of the people.

This is one of the lessons of the holy days of Passover, which are celebrated at this time of year by Jews around the world – to remember the greatest political liberation in history, where G-d intervened directly in human affairs to free an oppressed people.

Lessons

Among these momentous events, Moses, the great leader of that time, did something that may have seemed insignificant, but has within it profound life lessons for South Africa today.

Picture the scene of ancient Egypt 3 328 years ago in the streets near Pharoah’s palace. In their final moments before leaving Egypt, the Jewish slaves, free for the first time in their lives, were given gold and silver and other possessions by their Egyptian task masters as reparation for the years of unpaid slave labour and the hardship and suffering endured by them.

Everyone was enriched – except Moses. Instead, he went to find and take Joseph’s body for removal with the fleeing slaves, as that generation was obliged to do, in terms of a promise made to Joseph by the children of Israel that they would one day take his body with them when they left Egypt. That responsibility was left to Moses.

The Talmud says that while the people were attending to their material concern, Moses was concerned with his responsibility of leading the people.

The Talmud says that leadership is “not power and glory but service”. Moses exemplified this teaching. He took nothing for himself.

Moses once said: “I have not taken even one donkey from them.” (Numbers 16:15) He only made sacrifices for the nation.

The key to a successful and bright future for South Africa is leadership based on service, not enrichment.

My fellow South Africans, our country is at a crossroads and something needs to be done to ensure that the president resigns.

We must begin afresh, so that we can have a president and a government who will save our country from the evil of corruption, which threatens to engulf us. We deserve no less.

● Goldstein is the chief rabbi of South Africa and has a doctorate in human rights law.