After losing hundreds of billions to the biggest and most systemic organised crime operation in recent memory, SA has turned its attention to commissions. President Cyril Ramaphosa seems to have fallen into the trap of governing through commissions.
Everywhere you look, there’s a retired judge with no prosecutorial powers having a conversation with some of the foot soldiers in the state capture project.
Meanwhile, the masterminds live large in sunny locations enjoying their loot, and the most prominent suspects hold rallies and threaten their comrades with the fires of hell if they dare point out their corruption.
The commission of inquiry into Sars is in business and deputy chief justice Raymond Zondo’s broader commission into state capture will soon be too. The investigation of state capture by parliament’s public enterprises portfolio committee has wrapped up its cross-examinations of witnesses – those who heeded the request to give evidence.
Again, those who did appear before parliament were the lowly foot soldiers who carried out the instructions of the masterminds. Again, the most prominent of the foot soldiers, as well as the masterminds, either showed parliament the middle finger, or were not summoned to appear.
The committee, which heard how Eskom was brazenly looted into bankruptcy, is expected to place its report before parliament for adoption later this year.
Just like retired judge Robert Nugent’s Sars inquiry, neither the parliamentary probe into Eskom nor Zondo’s commission will directly convict anyone. At the risk of sounding disdainful, what the commissions produce will only be recommendations. At most, the findings will recommend that the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) bring criminal charges. Thus no thief is losing any sleep.
Despite the mountains of evidence about the corruption that has bankrupted or threatens to bankrupt many municipalities and state-owned companies such as Eskom, SAA, PetroSA, Denel, the SABC, the Passenger Rail Agency of SA, SA Express and Transnet, not a single arrest has been made. There’s not a prosecutor in sight. No law-enforcement agencies. Nothing.
Even the mock arrests in the R220-million Estina dairy theft have been shown for what they really are. It seems the Hawks’ case has been deliberately undermined from within, to let the suspects off the hook.
Crooks in the private sector have caught on to the lack of consequences for white-collar crime. They’ve been stealing from investors and the public with impunity for a while now. It is a free for all. Anything goes. The NPA and its chief Shaun Abrahams are sitting on their imaginary laurels while criminals are on the rampage.
Which leads one to ask: what is the SA Police Service doing? Where are the prosecutorial services? Where are the state security agencies? These sectors employ more than 300000 people to enforce the law and prevent crime. Yet all forms of crime seem to be spiralling out of control.
Elsewhere in the world, suspects in corruption are treated very differently. Last month alone, Audi CEO Rupert Stadler was arrested in connection with the company’s diesel-emission scandal and audit firm PwC was fined £10-million by the UK’s financial reporting council for its failure to spot fraud that caused the collapse of the 180-store retailer BHS. This all makes SA the best country in which to pursue a lucrative career in crime...