We started the new year on a sombre note, bidding farewell to one of our country’s illustrious sons, a world-renowned cleric who spent most of his 90 years on Earth as a champion of peace and justice in SA and everywhere else.
It has become a cliché to say, when a prominent political figure who was involved in the struggle against apartheid dies, that such death marks the end of an era. In Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu’s case, however, the statement is apt.
He was among the last of a golden generation of activists who stood up for the truth, often at huge personal cost, during our country’s darkest hour of racial discrimination and violent political suppression.
Tutu also distinguished himself in postapartheid SA by continuing to speak truth to power even when that truth was inconvenient for his erstwhile comrades-in-arms who wielded state power.
It is no exaggeration, therefore, to say he contributed immensely to the birth of SA democracy and to instilling a culture of accountability in the elected leaders.
His ashes had barely been interred at St George’s Cathedral in Cape Town when reports of fire at the nearby parliamentary precinct started filtering through.
We watched with shock as the inferno spread through various sections of a precinct we have come to recognise as the citadel of our democracy. As the extent of the damage began to emerge, we were left with many questions as to what caused this calamity.
Investigations are still ongoing as to the source of the fire. A suspect has been arrested and it will be up to the courts to decide his guilt or innocence.
But what is clear is that the houses of parliament would not have been reduced to ashes had all the security and safety measures been adhered to. Sections of the parliamentary administration failed the nation and, in the process, cost the taxpayer hundreds of millions of rand.
It is therefore important that, as citizens, we should insist the probe into the fire is not limited to the alleged arsonist — that it goes further to look into officials who, through omissions or actions, made the fire possible.
The houses of parliament would not have been reduced to ashes had all the security and safety measures been adhered to.
But we also know that the parliament inferno and many other disturbing incidents in our country in recent months and years are a reflection of a state that has been weakened and broken by corruption and political factionalism to such an extent that it has become largely dysfunctional.
The first part of a three-part report into state capture, released by Zondo commission chair and deputy chief justice Raymond Zondo this week, gives us a glimpse of how state institutions and government departments were hollowed out and destroyed for the benefit of then president Jacob Zuma and his Gupta associates.
But, as we have seen since Zuma’s removal from office in 2018, the corruption was not limited to the former president and his faction. It has continued to spread unabated, even during Cyril Ramaphosa’s supposed New Dawn.
However, the release of the first part of the report, and Ramaphosa’s decision to make it public immediately, is a major step towards putting an end to the culture of impunity that has allowed corruption to thrive.
What happens next is crucial. Police and prosecution bodies, long criticised for being reluctant to act against powerful individuals accused of corruption and state capture, need to play their parts as a matter of urgency.
The Zondo commission has shone the light on some of the dark corners where corrupt politicians and public officials colluded with unscrupulous business personalities to enrich themselves unfairly, often at the expense of the poor.
The ball is now in Ramaphosa’s and the state’s court. Failure to move on those responsible for state capture would further erode the public’s confidence in the state and strengthen the hand of the corrupt.
As citizens, we should also play our part by putting pressure on state institutions to act. We should not allow any aspect of the state capture report to be neglected and for those it implicates to escape without being held accountable.
That is the only way our country can rise from the ashes of state capture and live up to the standards of good governance and justice set for us by Tutu and his cohorts.
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