As the internal workings of our police service is dissected in parliament and the Madlanga Commission, it is becoming clear that our police service, the judiciary and perhaps our entire system of governance is severely compromised.
The increasing corruption of our democracy has been leaving breadcrumbs for decades.
Political scandals have been consistent indicators of the loose ground on which we seem to have built our entire democracy.
All that was offered in response was a politically charged explanation to pacify the South African people to forgive these clear signals for over two decades.
How South Africans were duped into accepting that politics is a dirty game created an atmosphere that allowed politicians to drive the disease of corruption deep into our collective existence.
Consequently, the deep corruption of the apartheid state has been emulated.
When former police minister Bheki Cele testified before the parliamentary ad hoc committee last week, he made startling allegations.
One of these allegations was that suspended police minister Senzo Mchunu may have been preparing to launch a political campaign for the presidency or the deputy presidency of the ANC and consequently the country.
This type of campaign obviously requires a lot of cash.
The suspicion is that Mchunu may have been organising prospective funders by surrounding himself with shady characters like Vusumuzi Matlala and Brown Mogotsi.
“First, he [Matlala] said he has met Mchunu and Brown Mogotsi. And they spoke about him [Mchunu], because he [Matlala] got money through the tender [a R360m SAPS tender] to fund his [Mchunu’s] project of becoming either a president or deputy president [of the ANC],” said Cele before the ad hoc committee.
Surely these allegations are still to be tested properly.
However, they fit the modus operandi of the shady political funding culture which saw the exchange of brown envelopes and bags of cash during ANC elective conferences.
A pliable comrade (or criminal) gets a tender, then they make a sizable donation to the governing party to show their appreciation for government business.
The problem is that these guys ultimately feel no obligation to render the actual service they are awarded these tenders for.
They seemingly assume the real service is making these “donations” to the movement.
For that matter, with such arranged donations, the prospects of being held to account dwindle as the political principals they donate to are forced to ensure their protection from prosecution.
Former president Jacob Zuma, who had a startlingly crude grasp of politics once revealed this funding model during an ANC fundraiser. In retrospect, it seems what Zuma often revealed was the essence of the inner workings of the ANC.
The result of this funding model could not have been anything else but the degeneration that sees politicians seeking funding from questionable characters even for their own political projects within the ANC.
What is good for the ANC, the broad church, the political university that has spawned an entire political class, is obviously good enough for its students and products.
“I always say to business people that if you invest in the ANC, you are wise. If you don’t invest in the ANC, your business is in danger. The TG [ANC treasurer general] is a nice and a handsome young man. When he knocks, open the doors.
“If he says we need something he will ask one thing only. If he says support the ANC, just write a blank cheque with the instruction that it should be six digits,” said Zuma in 2015.
Five years ago, during the Zondo commission and in countless government procurement related scandals, the same model came up.
One of these was the channelling of suspicious payments from tech giant, EOH to the ANC around the time EOH clinched a huge contract with the City of Johannesburg. Steven Powell, head of a forensic department in law firm ENS was one of the people who made submissions to the commission. In his testimony Powell also identified this model.
“But what we’ve seen is almost a pattern of regular solicitation of donations coupled to the awards of these tenders.
“It’s almost as if the tenders are being granted in exchange for financial benefit to the party,” said Powell.
This model can only be entrenched if the police service and crime intelligence are also destabilised and rendered useless.
The corrupting power of top politicians and destabilised police services have exposed South Africa to severe levels of crime and security risk. The risk of “a total collapse” is no longer remote.
Daily Dispatch
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