ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe does not need a litany of written submissions to be able to investigate the allegations of state capture facilitated by the senior leadership of the party. He never did. The prima facie evidence is plain for all to see.
Of course, the planned party investigation was never about corruption.
There is even a reference to politicians selling decision-making to private firms “on an à la carte basis”, which brings to mind images of the Gupta brothers choosing Cabinet ministers as if from a restaurant menu, while the leaders of the ANC’s dominant faction lick their fingers and count the cash.
But we have been so preoccupied with the spectre of state capture that we have taken our eyes off its handmaiden – the capture of independent public institutions by the governing party for the purpose of extracting rents, concealing information and maintaining power at all costs.
Before corrupt members of the government can peddle the South African state to private interests, they must first secure the compliance of the institutions most likely to keep them in check and prevent this power abuse in the first place.
And although we have had an abundance of reasons to celebrate the judicial branch of the government, which has shown itself to be fully independent and unavailable for capture by the ruling party’s political interests, the same cannot be said for the legislative branch, or for a range of institutions of which some in the ANC are preparing, vampire-like, to take wholesale possession.
Take parliament, whose capture can fairly be said to have begun under the presidency of Thabo Mbeki.
He viewed the institution as the government’s rubber stamp at best, and at worst, as an irritation to be ignored as he moved to centralise power exclusively within the Union Buildings.
Today, the process of institutional capture is almost complete, as a politically compliant speaker and army of heavies in white shirts work hard to ensure parliament is always submissive and obedient towards the incumbent president, Jacob Zuma.
Mbeki’s mistrust of institutions of oversight also extended to the free media, with which he refused to engage productively.
In response to this mistrust, his allies on the board of the SABC spent years presiding over a creeping culture of self-censorship and sycophancy; an ethos that systematically drove the sharpest and most talented people out of the corporation.
The antics of SABC chief operating officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng – in fact, his very presence within the institution – are the only logical conclusion of this long process of attrition.
Anybody familiar with the broadcaster’s golden age under the leadership of Peter Matlare, or the late Zwelakhe Sisulu must surely cringe every time another of Motsoeneng’s inane decrees makes headline news.
While our former president’s motives in neutering these institutions may not have been the abuse of public resources for personal enrichment, his tenure set the stage for an institutional capture that has been the hallmark of Zuma’s presidency.
Lindiwe Mazibuko is a former parliamentary leader of the DA and now a resident fellow of the Harvard institute of politics
Mbeki mistrust sparked off institutional capture
Of course, the planned party investigation was never about corruption.
There is even a reference to politicians selling decision-making to private firms “on an à la carte basis”, which brings to mind images of the Gupta brothers choosing Cabinet ministers as if from a restaurant menu, while the leaders of the ANC’s dominant faction lick their fingers and count the cash.
But we have been so preoccupied with the spectre of state capture that we have taken our eyes off its handmaiden – the capture of independent public institutions by the governing party for the purpose of extracting rents, concealing information and maintaining power at all costs.
Before corrupt members of the government can peddle the South African state to private interests, they must first secure the compliance of the institutions most likely to keep them in check and prevent this power abuse in the first place.
And although we have had an abundance of reasons to celebrate the judicial branch of the government, which has shown itself to be fully independent and unavailable for capture by the ruling party’s political interests, the same cannot be said for the legislative branch, or for a range of institutions of which some in the ANC are preparing, vampire-like, to take wholesale possession.
Take parliament, whose capture can fairly be said to have begun under the presidency of Thabo Mbeki.
He viewed the institution as the government’s rubber stamp at best, and at worst, as an irritation to be ignored as he moved to centralise power exclusively within the Union Buildings.
Today, the process of institutional capture is almost complete, as a politically compliant speaker and army of heavies in white shirts work hard to ensure parliament is always submissive and obedient towards the incumbent president, Jacob Zuma.
Mbeki’s mistrust of institutions of oversight also extended to the free media, with which he refused to engage productively.
In response to this mistrust, his allies on the board of the SABC spent years presiding over a creeping culture of self-censorship and sycophancy; an ethos that systematically drove the sharpest and most talented people out of the corporation.
The antics of SABC chief operating officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng – in fact, his very presence within the institution – are the only logical conclusion of this long process of attrition.
Anybody familiar with the broadcaster’s golden age under the leadership of Peter Matlare, or the late Zwelakhe Sisulu must surely cringe every time another of Motsoeneng’s inane decrees makes headline news.
While our former president’s motives in neutering these institutions may not have been the abuse of public resources for personal enrichment, his tenure set the stage for an institutional capture that has been the hallmark of Zuma’s presidency.
Lindiwe Mazibuko is a former parliamentary leader of the DA and now a resident fellow of the Harvard institute of politics
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