We have known we are sinking under an unbearable load of corruption, theft and greed.
We have known, but at every juncture during the Zondo commission, we are shocked by the extent of the corruption. In 1994, the hope was that we were now taking a new trajectory as a country. We were so sure of this that we gave our undivided trust to our leaders. Not only did we do this, we largely accepted that. It did not matter which political party led the new path, as long as it was a party that was firmly aligned with the idea of freedom.
For some of us, this freedom meant the ability to decide which direction our lives would take, and what contribution we would make in a society of our own free will.
It was a time of great hope, doubt, excitement and anxiety all at the same time.
I remember soon feeling a sense of being profoundly unaware of how things worked in the modern world.
As a product of a history steeped in tradition, as well as the apartheid system that confined my participation in the modern world to being a servant of apartheid, I placed too much dependence on leaders.
Along with millions of South Africans, I assumed leaders knew far more than we did. We depended on the know-how and goodwill of our leaders.
Perhaps unbeknown to most South Africans, it was actually our leaders who depended on our goodwill.
It is the trust we gave them to lead the way and chart a new course, a course unlike the one we walked before, which was our goodwill. We hoped they would look out for us.
We hoped they would model the kind of people we were to be in the new world. We thought, as we emerged from a past immersed in a system of power at the expense of the powerless, we would find a place where we were for once enabled and empowered. We would work and build our lives without the interference of the state to stifle our development.
Unfortunately, in our expectations we opened a door to what we had been exposed to for centuries. We expected leaders to have their own excesses, to look out for themselves somehow. We expected them to “feed” their families first and somehow took this to be normal.
But unbeknown to us, we were opening a door to an elite which would care only for feeding “their kind”.
We did not know that the practice of paying lip service to leadership and governance while overwhelming the system with networks of patronage and underhanded beneficiation would overtake us so much.
The details of the corruption which propped up Bosasa has lifted the lid on the massive criminal networks which are operating at the core of South Africa’s economy. How many other similar corruption networks are embedded in the government tender system?
The predatory system, set up by colonialism and apartheid, was seemingly only taken over by a new crew. The system that says those who are in the know must take advantage of those who lack knowledge has found perhaps its ultimate expression here among us.
And the worst is, when we become wiser, we might see how things have been done and conclude that this is how things are done. The vicious cycle which keeps Africa in perpetual want is thus entrenched, while the proceeds of crimes against her are flaunted and displayed for all to see.
So what has the ruling party taught us, really? If we come to think of its legacy, what is it? Has it not successfully milked all of its struggle credentials dry in pursuit of quick cash, riches and political domination?
While no one can erase history and the gallant effort that was represented by the ANC – together with other liberation era political parties – that past seems truly and well gone now. If it was a past to deliver us into the hands of predators who think nothing of setting up the most elaborate and outrageous criminal and corruption networks, it is a past worth leaving behind.
We are glad Angelo Agrizzi came forward.
While his testimony is really depressing, we pray that we will find a way to make a huge correction from here.
We cannot afford to move forward into a future which is flooded with corruption. Corruption only breeds poverty and disempowerment. This is something we cannot allow...