ANC’s failure exposed
While the once-powerful party had sought to portray the corruption accusations levelled against its leadership as ill-founded or isolated, then-deputy chief justice Raymond Zondo’s wide-ranging investigation demonstrated that corruption was central to the way in which the ANC operated.
The ANC under then-president Jacob Zuma “permitted, supported and enabled corruption”, Zondo found, in a series of reports that described how the party credited with liberating South Africa from apartheid had effectively sought to sell it, piece by piece, to multiple powerful business people.
State capture would not have been possible without the ANC’s actions or inaction, the then-deputy chief justice said. The party also failed to stop widespread corruption and protected those who were implicated.
The ANC knew what was happening but failed to act decisively.
then-deputy chief justice Raymond Zondo
“Too often, the interests of the ANC were placed above the interests of the country.”
Crucially, Zondo stressed that the ANC had ample knowledge of the wrongdoing that was unfolding, especially when it came to the influence of Zuma’s self-described friends, the Gupta family, on the president. Yet, it chose not to intervene. He described this as a betrayal of the party’s constitutional responsibilities.
“When the ANC knew what the Guptas were doing, it should have taken action, but it didn’t,” he said.
“A number of ANC leaders failed in their duty to speak out or act against corruption when they had the opportunity to do so.”
Unfortunately for the ANC, it did not treat Zondo’s painstaking examination of the corruption and malfeasance that was strangling democratic South Africa’s hopes of developing into a truly free and equal country as an important opportunity for self-examination and reform.
Instead, it again put itself before the interests of the South African people – and failed to take any conclusive steps to deal with the rot within its ranks. It defended its toxic cadre deployment system and, rather than using public funds to uplift the poor and vulnerable, embarked on a new cycle of looting and maliciously incompetent governance.
What the ANC failed to realise, however, was that the public now had a powerful opportunity to display its displeasure at its failure to confront its own reality: elections.
Less than two years after the Zondo Commission exposed how the ANC was effectively an organised criminal enterprise, the party, which had trumpeted that it would rule “until Jesus comes”, lost its majority.
Confronted not only with the ANC’s malfeasance but its refusal to address it, millions of voters signalled that they wanted change – and set the stage for a dysfunctional season of power sharing.
More battering for weakened ANC
In this context, KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi’s accusations that significant sectors of South Africa’s criminal justice system have been infiltrated by criminal actors could not have come at a worse time for the ANC.
As the party attempts to deal with the inevitable and potentially unflattering comparisons that result in having multiple ministers from other parties serving in Cabinet, it is being forced – for the first time – to grasp that it is no longer guaranteed the power it has taken for granted.
And, given this, President Cyril Ramaphosa’s decision to appoint soon-to-be retired Deputy Chief Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga to conduct a far-ranging investigation into the potential infiltration of law enforcement during his administration may end up sounding a death knell for the ANC.
According to Mkhwanazi, the KZN political killings task team (which itself is mired in well-documented controversy) had “unmasked a syndicate which includes politicians, law enforcement (SAPS, metro police, correctional services), prosecutors, and the judiciary in Gauteng, which is controlled by [a] drug cartel, as well as business people”.
He has yet to provide details about any of these very serious accusations, which appear to centred, in large part, on Police Minister Senzo Mchunu’s decision to close down the political killings task team in the wake of hard-hitting complaints to Parliament about its conduct.
According to Mkhwanazi, the closure of the unit, which he maintains has been incredibly successful in tackling a variety of serious crimes, was driven by collusion and a desire to protect those that its officers were investigating.
Mchunu is now on special leave but will certainly be called as a witness in the Madlanga inquiry, where he will need to comprehensively address Mkhwanazi’s accusations.
Much ink has been spilt writing about the various actors involved in Mkhwanazi’s account of how and why the political killings task team was shut down – and, no doubt, much will be used up covering this highly anticipated commission.
But the point is this:
There is no scenario in which the ANC will walk away from this process unscathed.
If Mkhwanazi is correct, Ramaphosa’s “New Dawn” administration will be shown to be just as rotten as his predecessor’s, with officials trusted to protect members of the public from crime exposed as protecting criminals from accountability.
If Mkhwanazi’s accusations cannot be substantiated, they will fuel public perceptions that the police service is so profoundly factionalised and driven by political interests that it is incapable of identifying and dealing with the very real threat that crime poses to South Africa and its people.
There is also a strong possibility that, because many things can be true at the same time, elements of Mkhwanazi’s claims will be substantiated, while the evident factionalism of the police service is also laid bare.
And none of that looks good for the ANC.
ANC’s end is nigh
This inquiry is also not just about the police service.
It will require investigation of the beleaguered National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) at a time when it is under fire over a series of catastrophic court losses and apparent leadership incompetence.
Lest we forget, the NPA is simultaneously being investigated in a separate inquiry over evidence that senior members of the Mbeki administration interfered in the prosecution of apartheid-era crimes.
Former prosecutions head Vusi Pikoli has provided devastating testimony, which has been fiercely denied by ex-president Thabo Mbeki, that senior ANC leaders stymied justice for the victims of apartheid atrocities – because they feared that ANC members may also be prosecuted for crimes that they had been denied amnesty for by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).
Mkhwanazi’s claims, which will be tested through the Madlanga inquiry, are essentially a refashioning of what Pikoli accused the Mbeki administration of doing: allowing accountability to be subverted by self-interested considerations far outside the realm of genuine justice.
Those who are understandably frustrated by South Africa’s pathology of governance by inquiry may criticise both these investigations as yet another expensive way for Ramaphosa to delay addressing the turmoil within SA law enforcement and the NPA.
And they would be right, to some degree.
But what cannot be ignored is the fact that – like the Zondo inquiry – the Madlanga inquiry will put the ANC on trial.
Except, this time, it will be Ramaphosa’s leadership (or lack thereof) that will be under the microscope, and not Jacob Zuma’s.
At a time when South African voters are witnessing how ministers from other parties are seemingly addressing the challenges in their departments with greater efficiency and integrity, such a sharply focused examination of “New Dawn” law enforcement poses a significant threat to the ANC.
This is particularly given the ANC’s iron grip on control of the police and justice ministries.
We have no guarantee that we will get to the truth behind Mkhwanazi’s accusations. Nor can we be assured that, should wrongdoing be found, there will ever be genuine accountability.
What we can be sure of is this: South Africa’s crime-addled and corruption-sick citizenry will be watching the Madlanga inquiry. And, should the ANC and its leadership again be found to be at the centre of evidence of criminality, incompetence and unaccountability, the party has absolutely no reserves of public trust to draw on.
That’s why, far from simply being a convenient mechanism to avoid making tough calls on the leadership of SA law enforcement, the Madlanga inquiry may end up being far more damaging to the ANC than the Zondo inquiry was.
While the Zondo inquiry signalled a wasted opportunity for the ruling party to reflect and reform, the Madlanga commission may end up marking something even darker: the beginning of the end of the ANC.
