CONSTITUTIONAL COMMENTARY AND EVENTS

It is today four years since South Africa mourned the passing of Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, the first President of the democratic and non-racial South Africa. And even though this is a short time in the life of a country, it seems much longer. This feeling originates from the fact that in the last four years, the country has moved almost a lifetime away from Madiba’s South Africa. During, and for some time after his presidency, South Africa was the country of hope, of reconciliation, of an active reconstruction and development programme, and of a public service with a motto such as batho pele, the people first. 

Even within his beloved ANC, countless leaders have asked the question of what Madiba would have thought of the South Africa of 2017. A South Africa where hope has all but left even the most patriotic of South Africans, where reconciliation has been replaced with racialisation and intolerance, where not even the most basic of government programmes are implemented and service delivery has grinded to a halt, where the motto of the public service is, with only a few exceptions, ke pele, me first. Those same leaders answered their own question: He would have been pained, sad and furious. Lack of leadership, corruption and state capture are far from the ideal society Madiba had envisaged for the nation.

In an affidavit that came to light last week, the evidence leader of the parliamentary Eskom inquiry, Advocate Ntuthuzelo Vanara, stated that the Minister of State Security, Bongani Bongo, offered him a bribe to derail the inquiry. It was specifically stated that Bongo told Vanara that he offered him the “blank cheque” at the request of the interim chairman of the Eskom board, Zethembe Khoza. Khoza has since denied that he had anything to do with the bribe or that he even knows Bongo.

All parties taking part in the Eskom inquiry were outraged by this, and the Speaker even reported this on Monday to President Zuma, as Minister Bongo is a member of his cabinet. The Presidency released a statement on Tuesday stating that the president is “attending to the matter”.