It’s becoming harder to avoid the conclusion that the government, elected not only to exercise political authority over the country but to protect its integrity, has become complicit, if not a willing participant, in the lawlessness that has taken root in SA. It encourages criminality by simply turning a blind eye to it; and has no qualms abetting misbehaviour that suits its political agenda.
Last year’s cataclysmic events, which have darkened the country's already gloomy outlook, was no spur of the moment. It was an inferno sparked by many little fires deliberately ignored by the government for many years.
Last week taxis blockaded main routes in Mpumalanga in protest against fuel increases. Nothing happened, not even a squeak of disapproval from those in authority. The police were largely absent. Taxi owners have been on TV promising nationwide mayhem next week unless their demands are met. In any functioning society, people threatening harm to the national good would have been arrested and hauled before a magistrate to face justice. But no, this is SA, where the law is not the bedrock of society but a mere inconvenience.
By ignoring such blatant breaches of the law, the authorities are not only failing society, they’re encouraging disruptive behaviour. It may now be too late to put the genie back in the bottle. As one wag put it recently, the law works only for the lawless in SA. How can the law work when those meant to uphold it are the first to break it? The lawlessness we see in the streets is a replication of what’s happening at the top.
But nothing was as egregious and downright brainless as ministers last month meeting a group of truck drivers who a day earlier parked their vehicles on the N3, bringing the country’s economic activity almost to a standstill for 24 hours. These were economic saboteurs but instead of being arrested, they were rewarded with a meeting with a high-powered delegation of ministers — of police, labour, home affairs, and transport — who in no time miraculously found a gap in their busy schedules for a meeting to sue for peace.
A so-called action plan was adopted and an interministerial task team would meet monthly to give a progress report to the miscreants. Home affairs minister Aaron Motsoaledi did not have a single bad word for the strikers but he castigated employers who, apart from creating jobs, were trying to make an honest living. That such gutless conduct by the ministers passed without much attention attests to the depths to which this country has sunk.
People are free to protest, but not to engage in acts of violence or to inconvenience innocent civilians going about their lawful business. Where such wrongdoing takes place, authorities need to come down hard in forceful and unambiguous terms. The ministers instead condoned and capitulated to out-and-out thuggery. They were virtually complicit in the commission of a crime.
The ministers’ diffidence towards the strikers should come as no surprise. The ANC, we’re told, is a broad church, accommodating not only different factions but also trade unions, communists, BEE types out for tenders ... They all have a seat at the top table, the ANC national executive committee. These relationships have sowed a culture antithetical to the efficient running of government. When the ministers engage those across the table, they may not see themselves as employers talking to people who have broken the law or striking workers. They are talking to their comrades. They talk the same language.
They all belong to the same sect, the ANC. They may hold different positions in the party or state structures but, like the mafia, they belong to the same sect and they abide by the same rules. They’ve sworn to protect each other. They’ve got each other’s backs. The state is their playground and their nest egg.
And the incentive for the ministers, for instance, may probably not be to properly carry out their duties but to cultivate or maintain comradely relationships with leaders of the working class across the table.
How should, say, an Angie Motshekga deal with a Sadtu official who sits on the ANC NEC and probably has better relations with the president and even have a direct line to him? And we wonder why Sadtu has taken control of education in this country.
Bheki Cele knows the identities of the masterminds behind last year’s unrest. He’s said so himself. But why aren’t they behind bars a year after those fateful events? Because they’re his comrades and some of them probably hold senior positions in government. That may also explain why he mysteriously disappeared at the height of the violence. These relationships must have worked wonders in facilitating state capture. The PPE money was gone before the president could even finish speaking.
The voter is the missing link in our politics. An antidote to the lawlessness would be electoral reform, which should have been ushered in more than 20 years ago. It won’t be a silver bullet, but a system that compels politicians to be accountable to voters and not their political parties would be a vast improvement. Chief justice Raymond Zondo in his final report has recommended that the president be elected directly by voters. That is a step in the right direction but it doesn’t go far enough. Political power should be vested in the voter. Everyone exercising political power — be it the village councillor or the president — should do so by virtue of a direct election.
It’s no surprise therefore that politicians are dead set against any changes to the law. Instead of an instrument for holding leaders to account, the current system has been their ticket to the feeding trough.
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