Peter Kimemia

I am reliably informed by impeccable sources that when a hyena decides to devour its young ones, it begins by accusing one of them of smelling like a goat! When such accusations start flying under circumstances of awfully skewed power relations, results are quite often deadly. As is to be expected of hyenas, gluttony regularly gives way to this pretentious ‘smelling analysis’ once the frenzy starts and the consequences can be quite tragic leading to the decimation of an entire pack. Naturally, hyenas and their friends will frown at these ‘misguided’ notions of their dishonorable exploits and on my part I will remain quite guarded in my expectations of ‘thank you’ notes from that constituency.

The post-Polokwane political landscape and the escapades of the ruling class have been rather intriguing and sometimes quite dramatic. No one begrudges the ruling class’ mandate of making life better for all. However, as the now old adage goes…’the price of freedom is eternal vigilance’, it would be delusional to suppose that politicians always act in the best interest of the people and the country. More often than not, they are given to severe myopia and the desire to serve narrow interests and self-aggrandizement.   They simply conjure some lame excuses to tinker with the laws of the land ostensibly to serve some common good while their main agenda is self-preservation either of the party and even more bizarrely, an individual! And they have perfected the art of bandying accusations, repeating them again and again as good propagandists are supposed to before eventually going for the kill. The tragedy of all this is that our democracy is being assaulted and tossed to the gutter. Yes, all this is being done ‘democratically’.

The current state of affairs is a classical example of the tyranny of the majority. But it is perhaps a bit presumptuous to call it the tyranny of the majority.  One would supposedly have to establish how representative the ANC’s parliamentary majority is especially following the wide fissures that have developed in the once colossus of a movement. Do the views and the actions of that parliamentary ‘majority’ still represent the majority of South Africans? Is parliament possibly amending laws to respond to the political needs of an individual or a clique while spinning the make-belief that they are doing so in the pursuit of a better life for all? These are pertinent questions that need to be tackled while trying to analyze the travails of our key institutions of governance over the past year. Seemingly, quite a few of them have smelt like goats and inadvertently attracted the not-so-gracious attention of the hyena. The key institutions of our democracy are being emasculated in very fundamental ways.

It began with the Directorate of Special Operations (DSO) / Scorpions. The Unit was accused of all manner of crimes and conspiracies. The most emotive and the one that was always going to assure ANC of a huge public support for the unit’s disbandment was the untested allegation that the ‘majority’ of the officers of the crime busting unit were inherited from the discredited apartheid era security apparatus. Understandably, any mention of those goons still stirs a lot of indignation in the minds of many.  So, it was a political masterstroke for the opponents of the Scorpions to accuse it of smelling like the dreaded apartheid-era security branch. Parliament grudgingly attempted to satisfy the process of public consultation by inviting representations over the matter. Most of these appeared stage-managed to build a strong case for the ‘slaughter of the offending goat’. Civil society voices were drowned by seemingly well organised mobs of hecklers during provincial hearings which made a mockery of democracy, tolerance and real public consultation and participation. However, the most telling statement that put paid to the pretentions of public consultation came from the Safety Committee Chairperson who arrogantly blurted out something to the effect that it did not really matter what those who were opposed to the disbandment of the Scorpions felt. In any case, the all-powerful ANC had decided that the disbandment would happen. So, it was futile really to keep on engaging the honorable members in what appeared to them like scholarly debates over the importance of an independent crime-busting unit, bold enough to accost the big fish in our society.

Tragically, quite a few people were fooled about the wisdom behind slaughtering this particular goat. However, there is a significant majority who still believe that the main reason for disbanding the Scorpions had to do with pay-back duels over fraudulent travel vouchers in which numerous Members of Parliament were fingered, lobbying by powerful business magnates with dodgy intentions and of course the unit’s enthusiastic pursuit of Jacob Zuma. Yes, enthusiasm in the conduct of one’s public duty can seemingly land you in real hot water. Ask the former scorpions who our Parliament managed to scatter all over and render jobless.

At about the same time that the Scorpions were being demonized and readied-up for the slaughter house, another war front was opened where the Judiciary was inundated with an unprecedented barrage of harsh criticisms aimed at cowing it from conducting its rightful role independently in the matter of Zuma versus the State. The Judiciary was accused of being counter-revolutionary and threats of violence were made in the event that Mr Zuma was convicted of alleged corruption. Luckily for the Judiciary a reprieve came after a now discredited judgment by Judge Nicholson at the High Court sitting in Pietermaritzburg in September 2008. The ANC supporters of Mr Zuma were overjoyed by Judge Nicholson’s endorsement of allegations of political conspiracy against their man. No one really knows the motivations behind Judge Nicholson’s dabbling in what was eventually found by the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) to have been irrelevancies. Never mind that those irrelevancies cost former President Thabo Mbeki his job as South Africa’s Chief Executive, time and money as he has since tried to clear himself from the allegations and more importantly, almost drove the country to the edge as political instability appeared imminent.

Fast forward to January 2009, ‘the show of force’ launch of the ANC manifesto in East London on the 10th and the anti-climax that was the SCA’s verdict on the following Monday the 12th which basically reopened the way for the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to go ahead and prefer criminal charges against the ANC President Jacob Zuma. The NPA in its now credibly familiar bold self declared its satisfaction with the outcome of its application at the SCA and promised to swing into action and charge Mr Zuma. A miffed ANC read further conspiracies and vowed to stand by its President.

After ‘playing’ progressive for sometime towards the end of last year, the Judiciary ‘seems to have reverted to its old bad habits’ of being counter-revolutionary and the constant irritant that the NPA has turned out to be (to the ANC) appears incorrigible. These two increasingly smell like goats and the hyena has duly taken note of that. That is why the national parliament, in our collective interest, is busy considering how to fix the NPA once and for all. The NPA would be best advised to leave JZ alone or else.

The Judiciary will be spared for now, safe for the scathing verbal attacks, at least until after the elections. Wonder why Julius Malema aka ‘kill for Zuma’ is desperately pleading that his boss be prosecuted only after serving as President? Even he at last believes that his boss might not dodge the courts forever. He is only unhappy about the timing preferred by the counter-revolutionary bunch.

By the way, those who are defacing ANC slogans to read something to the effect that together we can do more – crime, are being terribly nasty. Eish! Be nice, won’t you?    

The Transformer Vol. 15. No. 1 / February - March 2009