From politics to law enforcement, South Africans have repeatedly placed their faith in figures who ultimately fail to live up to expectations.
Idac head Andrea Johnson testifies at the Parliamentary Ad Hoc Committee inquiry into alleged corruption and political interference in the criminal justice system at Good Hope Chambers on 6 November 2025 in Cape Town, South Africa. Picture: Gallo Images/Brenton Geach.
In a society both cynical and angry, it is surprising that South Africans continue to place their hopes in a hero – that mythical superperson, man or woman, who will offer a strong muscular arm which will haul us out of the moral cesspit into which we are slowly being sucked downward.
Sadly, if those superheroes didn’t have feet of clay, they would have no feet at all.
Our president, Cyril Ramaphosa, is almost a mocking shadow of that man who proclaimed, with vigour in 2018, that there was a “new dawn” on the horizon, which would bring the light of morality after the darkness of corruption and state capture.
Then, there was the head of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), Shamila Batohi, who held the top prosecuting office for seven years and yet made next to no progress in dealing with the looters, or getting any of them behind bars.
The latest idol with feet of clay crumbling before us has been Andrea Johnson, who has been head of the Independent Directorate Against Corruption (Idac) for four years and who fell on her sword this week after being shown up in the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry as barely competent, at the very least.
Johnson has had her vehement supporters in sections of the media but, to us at least, she has not given solid reasons why she should have been considered as our saviour from corruption.
On the other hand, those accusing her of malfeasance are hardly long-lost relatives of Mother Theresa themselves.
In contemporary South Africa, it is impossible to distinguish the bad guys from the good – assuming that there is anybody in that latter category.
The worst of this is that, the next time we are presented with someone who is pushed as our new superhero, we’ll go back to our comics, because they’re more believable.
