Why no Zuptas ever get arrested

You and I will never know the full extent of Zupta corruption. Daily disclosures from the 200 000-odd leaked Gupta e-mails paint a picture that is difficult to comprehend because of its vast scale.

How many individuals and organisations are ensnared? We can only guess.

Why have there been no arrests? How much more evidence is required? It is as if we already know the big fish will not be prosecuted.

Why? Because the Hawks are corrupt and politically tainted. So too are the top echelons of the SAPS and the National Prosecuting Authority, among others. Google the names of their leadership. Then count how many have been suspended or discredited.

Among the chapter 9 institutions, the most glaring Zupta captive is the public protector. Her recommendations about Absa and the Reserve Bank are word-perfect Gupta scripts.

She confirmed suspicions by delivering her report to the leader of Black First Land First (BLF), who is on record as having begged the Guptas for cash.

BLF’s funded followers “defended” the Saxonwold compound against peaceful protesters on April 7. The documented racism of the Guptas and their wedding guests is forgotten by these racists when money flows their way.

Whisper it, if you dare, but the judiciary, too, is not above reproach. Consider, for example, the whitewash that Judge Willie Seriti performed with his probe into the arms deal.

John Hlophe is still Western Cape judge president, despite adverse findings by the Supreme Court of Appeal.

And the Judicial Service Commission, which plays a decisive role in the appointment of judges, has a distinct Zuma look. The Zuptas don’t want the next chief justice to have an independent streak. Judge Mogoeng Mogoeng is doing too great a job.

Another person who was expected to shine last week, Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown, disappointed optimists when she left the Eskom board loaded with Zuptas. The halting way she read out the newbies’ names suggested she had been presented with a list of people she did not know.

Justice for the Zuptas is unlikely. However, if Zuma and his Saxonwold accomplices never have to stand in the dock, they are being tried in the court of public opinion. Few believed Zuma last week when he told parliament he was fit and doing his presidential job “very well”.

We know from the Thabo Mbeki era that the ANC has a tendency to appease denialist leaders. The compromised party is doing that right now. ANC chief whip Jackson Mthembu and secretary-general Gwede Mantashe have set the tone for any no-confidence debate. Whether or not the ballot is secret, most ANC MPs will support Zuma.

All the sound and fury around this weekend’s ANC policy conference signify nothing. The sponsored stage is set for pro-Zupta delegates to prevail. Follow the money. The ANC is corrupt to the core, irredeemably.

South Africa’s salvation cannot derive from this Gupta-captured ANC, who have one-way tickets on transport loaded with gravy. Let them crash.

This country’s future lies with a new, different breed of leader. Roll on 2019.

DA city councillor for Joburg Martin Williams