Former president Jacob Zuma's departure from the Zondo commission this week was a breathtaking "up yours" to the whole democracy project of which he claims to have been so important a part. It's a spectacular middle finger to the constitution, the rule of law, the ethics of public office and, ultimately, to the people of SA. And, let's not forget, an act of rank rudeness to his "friend", deputy chief justice Raymond Zondo.
Instructively, and at odds with the legendary courage he professes to possess, Zuma's slinking out of the commission was done behind Zondo's back. Perhaps even Zuma could not face Zondo, and invite the contrast between his behaviour and the calm dignity and sense of public duty that has characterised Zondo's chairing of the commission. And for Zondo, all this while having to face a procession of rogues and charlatans and professional shoulder-shruggers, whose evidence raises serious questions about the quality of public service and the deleterious effect that the ANC's policy of cadre deployment has had on our public institutions and their governance. On Zuma's watch.
It's said there's many a slip between cup and lip, and so it was that by the time Zondo had emerged from his tea break, Zuma was already on his way
It's said there's many a slip between cup and lip, and so it was that by the time Zondo had emerged from his tea break, Zuma was already on his way, no sirens blaring this time to alert the judge to his star witness's abscondment.
The legal experts may dwell on the conduct of Zuma's lawyer, Muzi Sikhakhane (did he warn his client that he was breaking the law?), but Zuma is the master of this game. He knows full well the implications, and boasts a long and distinguished record of some 15 years of facing off against and bamboozling and tying in knots the authorities.
Perhaps, as pundits speculate, Zuma is waiting for a new broom to sweep back in the old in the ANC. If, as he contends, he is facing political persecution, that puts him in the same camp as his fellow champion of so-called radical economic transformation (RET), ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule, whose arrest on charges relating to the Free State asbestos-audit scam is similarly regarded as an act of selective prosecution, presumably approved by President Cyril Ramaphosa, whom the RET crowd cast in the role of stooge of white monopoly capital (WMC).
Magashule is said to be eyeing a rash of coming ANC provincial and regional conferences to install candidates who support his cause (which is basically himself). Putatively, though, its aim is the wresting back of control of the ANC from the so-called WMC crowd that captured it at Nasrec in 2017, and instituting potentially ruinous policies on grabbing land without compensation and nationalising the Reserve Bank.
It's possible ANC members with a weakness for heavy-handed redistribution policies will prevail, and that the Ramaphosa era will end unceremoniously. But it's equally possible Ramaphosa loyalists will hold the line, and that SA's character as a reasonably successful emerging economy predicated on moderate social-democratic policies will triumph. That, really, is the choice, and that is where Zondo's work is so important.
State capture, in which politicians are little more than the bag-carriers of criminal or unethical elements, is a constant danger to a democracy and people's welfare. To the extent that it is possible, a government of the people must strive to serve the people, not nameless interests who become a ticket to fantastic, ill-gotten wealth.
What does Zondo do now? Have Zuma arrested? Unlikely, perhaps, but it is the law, after all. Given the high stakes, he may do well by keeping the door open to Zuma, and continuing with his inquiry. Zuma's absence can hardly invalidate the outcome and substance of months of painstaking inquiry and legal endeavour.
Whether Zuma is charged or not, and offered an opportunity in criminal court to answer to certain charges, will depend not on the commission but on the work of the National Prosecuting Authority and the Hawks. There is nothing in Zuma's disappearing act that should hinder them in their work. They owe it to the people of SA.
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