Eight years into Ramaphosa’s presidency, corruption is no longer scandalous – it’s systemic. And the silence is deafening.
Former president Jacob Zuma’s most enduring legacy is state capture. That’s the dark art by which a clique of crooks, abetted by ANC politicians and party-aligned officials, tapped the arteries of government finance to drain the nation’s lifeblood: taxpayer money.
The Zondo commission laid bare the anatomy of the project, but could not deliver a cure. Corruption is no longer an aberration but SA’s default condition. The public no longer expects accountability and politicians no longer fear it.
Accountability in Ramaphosa’s administration
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s administration is now in its eighth year of failure. While the headline figures for state looting may have eased, the reach and scope of the disease have expanded into every sector of national life.
The recent bombshell allegations by KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi portray a police force infiltrated by powerful, criminally linked factions vying for dominance.
Recent developments regarding the MTN-ANC-Ramaphosa-Mcebisi Jonas nexus are a continuation of the theme. As has been exhaustively detailed in this column, this involves four civil actions in US courts; a landmark Turkcell civil action in South Africa; and a US grand jury investigation that is likely, statistically speaking, to produce criminal indictments.
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US special envoy feels the pressure
Though nothing is yet proven, it illustrates that state capture was likely never just a Zuma phenomenon. Nor would it end when Zuma was ousted by Ramaphosa.
MTN has long dismissed the accusations but it is clear that US “special envoy” Jonas is feeling the pressure. In last week’s Sunday Times front-page lead, Jonas framed any examination of these dealings as “dirty tricks”.
At the centre of this unravelling sits the DA, split in two. One camp clings to its historical role of vocally holding the ANC to account.
The other camp, clustered around DA leader John Steenhuisen, mutes, ignores and acquiesces in order to preserve its place in the government of national unity (GNU).
DA and Ramaphosa
The evidence abounds. The DA has let Ramaphosa scribble over half a dozen supposedly immutable “red lines”. It’s been critical of General Rudzani Maphwanya’s latest actions in Iran but silent when he scuppered last month’s military exercise with the US.
And for all Steenhuisen’s bluster, the DA allowed Ramaphosa to sack deputy minister Andre Whitfield and the security apparatus to hound Emma Powell, the DA’s shadow foreign minister, into resignation from that job.
Whitfield’s post remains empty and Powell is yet to be redeployed. Coalition politics require concessions.
But the DA has turned that into enthusiastic self-effacement. Ramaphosa knows that they will do almost anything to stay in the GNU. That “anything” extends to presidential accountability itself.
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Ryan Smith
When I pressed Ryan Smith, Powell’s replacement, on whether Maphwanya could have acted without the tacit or actual involvement of the government, his response was cautious. He placed primary responsibility at lower levels.
The parliamentary debate the DA has requested appears aimed at having these two “hauled over the coals or fired”, while at most reprimanding Ramaphosa for not having done so.
There is a brutal irony here. The same media and civil society watchdogs that tore into Zuma now treat Ramaphosa with kid gloves. He is largely cast as well-meaning, if somewhat hapless.
The reality, however, is darker. Under his watch, capture has not been checked. Instead, it has deepened and broadened, infecting the very institutions that should restrain it. Far from correcting Zuma’s excesses, Ramaphosa has presided over their escalation.
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