ANN CROTTY: The good guys are standing up

There was a spontaneous outbreak of clapping for Thokozani Magwaza, CEO of the SA Social Security Agency (Sassa), when he introduced himself and made a short comment at the standing committee on public accounts’ recent hearing. It was brief because committee chair Themba Godi is evidently a bit of a disciplinarian: nothing raucous under his watch.

For many of those attending the meeting — committee members, Sassa employees, treasury employees, civil society representatives and journalists — Magwaza represented the “good guys” in a fight for not just 17m social-grant recipients but for the soul of the ANC and probably the country at large. For those of us who watched the Sassa saga unfold over the past four or so months, it was evident that Magwaza had gone to great lengths, and probably taken considerable risks, to sort out the mess.

At the end of another dramatic week it is easy to be dismayed at the display of brute force by Zuma and his cronies

Much of his effort appeared designed to rescue the situation from the clutches of his inept minister, Bathabile Dlamini. At one parliamentary session with the social development committee it seemed Magwaza might have sent Dlamini’s Sassa stooge off in the wrong direction so the “good guys” could get an opportunity to inform the committee and the media what was really going on.

The minister quickly reined him back as it became evident a civil war had broken out in Sassa. Magwaza took sick leave, acting CEOs were appointed, and more Sassa officials broke radio silence to warn citizens about what was going on.

And so at the end of yet another dramatic week it is easy to be dismayed at the display of brute force by President Jacob Zuma and the cronies he surrounds himself with (ever more tightly). The hijacking of the interministerial committee tasked with overseeing the resolution of the Sassa mess is just the latest desperate effort to cling onto power.

But more significant are the growing signs of opposition to Zuma’s machinations. It’s no longer just finance minister Pravin Gordhan who is seen to be the bulwark against efforts to reduce the state to a Zuma honey pot. And it’s not just members of opposition parties that are determined to hold government to account.

ANC members of every parliamentary committee involved in the Sassa debacle have engaged robustly with the minister. Indeed, many ANC MPs are desperate to reverse the destruction of their party’s brand value. Look throughout government and you will find employees who aren’t there just to secure a juicy tender.

Outside of parliament there are thousands of civil society activists, acting on behalf of millions of citizens. They will not allow Zuma any easy victories. And there is the judicial system. Our constitutional court was probably reluctant to interfere yet again in government, but long before mid-March it must have been evident that it had no choice. It acted swiftly, identified what needed to be done and ordered it done.

Zuma may still not realise just how robust a democracy we have. If he interferes with the spirit of the court’s order it will be his undoing.