LETTER: Capture cads must learn the hard way
The question that nobody’s asking is where are those who are found guilty going to spend time. Our sardine tins are already overflowing, so by 2026 there won’t be room for a mouse – Cliff Buchler, former Managing Editor of Caxton West Rand.
• Cliff Buchler, former Managing Editor of Caxton West Rand writes:
Law experts predict Judge Zondo’s recommendations will only find traction in four or five years’ time. Would I still be alive to enjoy the moment? And who of the plunderers would be around to serve jail time? Some are already ill – or putting on a false act.
The question that nobody’s asking is where are those who are found guilty going to spend time. Our sardine tins are already overflowing, so by 2026 there won’t be room for a mouse.
Not only that, these miscreants need to be taught a lesson and should end their days feeling how the country at large felt when they plundered the fiscus, leaving the poor not much better off under their rule. In fact, poverty and unemployment have never been so high.
There is an ideal place that can be utilised. It already has the infrastructure to house the prisoners, and the sea separating it from civilization makes it perfect for the job. The history of the place will add to the inmates’ agony and hopefully, embarrassment, because before it was inhabited by good, innocent people who fought hard to free a country from a cruel regime.
What delicious irony if Number One, the architect of state capture and his buddy with a penchant for Louis Vuitton bags, be locked up in the same cell as the saviour of their party, neigh, country – an icon who stood for honesty, integrity and decency.
This time round the cell would house those responsible for a country’s downfall and not those who spent the time drawing up a blueprint to uplift a land under the yoke of apartheid.
You’ve guessed it. I’m referring to Robben Island, that during Madiba’s tenure, stood for hope, and acted as a think tank for a group of sincere folk (including, ironically again, Jacob Zuma) who dreamed of a better future, not only for them but for the country as a whole.
Zuma would’ve been served with a double whammy, undoubtedly spending many wretched hours of introspection and asking, “Where did I go wrong? Why did I not stick with my fellow comrades? Are bagsful of lolly worth doing a second term – and that in a place that was once sacred?”
On second thoughts, let’s keep the island revered and not besmirch it with rottenness. So, sardine tins for the spoilers.
