Imagine a businessman in a local municipality, who has troubles with his bank. The bank writes to tell him that his account has been frozen due to criminality involved in the account.
The idea that the businessman could solicit the intervention of a mayor to resolve his private dispute with a bank sounds like madness.
It would never have happened under Nelson Mandela, certainly not under Thabo Mbeki.
Fortunately, South Africa is not a banana republic yet. Our country still has strong regulation and institutions.
Whatever the Guptas may have told Zwane before he was appointed, he has no powers to instruct banks to reopen bank accounts belonging to private businesspeople.
South Africans can rest assured that Zuma’s ministers will come back empty-handed. The banks can never communicate information about their private clients to anybody – not even to Zuma himself.
In a polite way, the banks will tell Zuma’s ministers to go jump into the nearest lake and kiss a pregnant frog.
If the banks were to entertain Zuma’s ministers, it would mean that all manner of scoundrels could simply bribe Zuma to resolve their problems with the banks.
That would be the end of clean banking in South Africa.
It must not be forgotten that, on May 2 2011, Zuma met gangsters in the Western Cape. According to the Mail & Guardian, one of the gangsters, referring to Zuma, said: “The old-timer is a f***er just like us.”
Another of the gangsters asked Zuma to sort out his tax troubles with SARS.
If Zuma can dispatch his ministers to negotiate with banks for his dodgy business friends, the Guptas, only God knows what he does to the South African Revenue Service, an agency under his control.
All of this answers the fundamental question: Why does Zuma cling to power, even when it is obvious that South Africans are fed up with him?
The first reason is that Zuma is bent on using the state as an instrument for private wealth accumulation.
If it means deploying ministers in his sordid affairs, he will do it.
The second, perhaps the most important, reason is that Zuma is a man trying to dodge more than 780 criminal charges that were dropped illegally.
The possibility of him ending up like Jackie Selebi is real.
A man like that is very dangerous. He will stop at nothing to stay out of jail, and, given that he is serving his last term, it makes sense for Zuma to loot state resources as if there was no tomorrow.
The question for us ordinary South Africans is: What can we do?
Prince Mashele is a senior research fellow at the Centre for the Study of Governance and Innovation, University of Pretoria
Mediation in Gupta woes with banks is madness
The idea that the businessman could solicit the intervention of a mayor to resolve his private dispute with a bank sounds like madness.
It would never have happened under Nelson Mandela, certainly not under Thabo Mbeki.
Fortunately, South Africa is not a banana republic yet. Our country still has strong regulation and institutions.
Whatever the Guptas may have told Zwane before he was appointed, he has no powers to instruct banks to reopen bank accounts belonging to private businesspeople.
South Africans can rest assured that Zuma’s ministers will come back empty-handed. The banks can never communicate information about their private clients to anybody – not even to Zuma himself.
In a polite way, the banks will tell Zuma’s ministers to go jump into the nearest lake and kiss a pregnant frog.
If the banks were to entertain Zuma’s ministers, it would mean that all manner of scoundrels could simply bribe Zuma to resolve their problems with the banks.
That would be the end of clean banking in South Africa.
It must not be forgotten that, on May 2 2011, Zuma met gangsters in the Western Cape. According to the Mail & Guardian, one of the gangsters, referring to Zuma, said: “The old-timer is a f***er just like us.”
Another of the gangsters asked Zuma to sort out his tax troubles with SARS.
If Zuma can dispatch his ministers to negotiate with banks for his dodgy business friends, the Guptas, only God knows what he does to the South African Revenue Service, an agency under his control.
All of this answers the fundamental question: Why does Zuma cling to power, even when it is obvious that South Africans are fed up with him?
The first reason is that Zuma is bent on using the state as an instrument for private wealth accumulation.
If it means deploying ministers in his sordid affairs, he will do it.
The second, perhaps the most important, reason is that Zuma is a man trying to dodge more than 780 criminal charges that were dropped illegally.
The possibility of him ending up like Jackie Selebi is real.
A man like that is very dangerous. He will stop at nothing to stay out of jail, and, given that he is serving his last term, it makes sense for Zuma to loot state resources as if there was no tomorrow.
The question for us ordinary South Africans is: What can we do?
Prince Mashele is a senior research fellow at the Centre for the Study of Governance and Innovation, University of Pretoria
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