Don’t kill me, but those deluded Jacob Zuma acolytes who now masquerade under the nickname “The Taliban” actually have a point: the ANC’s “step aside” rule is prejudicial to many of the party’s leaders.
You will have seen the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) ANC’s new leaders at the party policy conference at the weekend ignoring unemployment, poverty, violence, corruption, hunger and other ills of our nation while they fought tooth and nail for the “step aside” policy to be scrapped. I think they are correct to be aggrieved. They are utterly wrong as well. Indeed, their battle exposes them as nothing but unprincipled politicians trying to extend their looting of taxpayers’ money.
Yet … let me explain. Our problem in SA is that, for virtually every South African, the process of investigation, prosecution and judgment just takes too long. Cases get enrolled in the courts after years. Trials are concluded long after the victims have given up hope of seeing justice served. That means if you are a politician accused of corruption, you may “step aside” for five to 10 years. Even if you are innocent, what are your children living on in that time?
Imagine that you were former eThekwini mayor Zandile Gumede. Back in 2020 she was accused of and charged with corruption and racketeering after allegations that she was involved in fraud of R320m. Gumede was stripped of her position as mayor and is unable to stand for an elected public position until she is cleared of all wrongdoing.
It is now 2022. On Monday Gumede dutifully appeared in court, but the trial could not go ahead because there are disputes about who pays for defence counsel.
This is a serious case. Gumede and her co-accused allegedly received at least R2.8m in kickbacks between January 2017 and July 2019 for ensuring predetermined businesses benefited from waste contracts. Why is it taking so long to bring them to justice? Imagine that Gumede is innocent. If she is, then her family depended on her salary as an elected mayor of eThekwini or her position as a member of the provincial legislature. If she stepped aside from her position, they could be destitute.
Take another KZN case. Five years ago Sindiso Magaqa, a fiery former ANC Youth League secretary-general and Umzimkhulu councillor, was shot, along with two other councillors. He later died in a Durban hospital after he was allegedly given poisoned food by political rivals within his own organisation. Five years later, the trial has not even started.
Cases take ages to be investigated or prosecuted in SA, unless there is political pressure (say, in the case of Hillary Gardee, the daughter of an EFF luminary). Most cases, particularly those involving crimes committed by politically connected individuals, take years to come to court — if they make it there at all.
Which is why I say the ANC’s Taliban faction is hypocritical when it says it wants the step aside rule to be scrapped. If new ANC KZN chair Siboniso Duma, his Limpopo counterpart Stan Mathabatha and others were serious about SA they would be making a far broader and more fundamental point. They would be asking: why does justice take so long for all South Africans?
You see, Gumede would suffer no prejudice if her trial had been investigated and prosecuted speedily. Why has it taken two years for this case to only now be discussing legal representation? If she is guilty, she should be in jail by now. Speed in prosecutions is what the Taliban faction should be asking for if it were serious about the rule of law.
The problem that ordinary South Africans face is not the step aside rule. It is that the wheels of justice grind slowly, if at all. Woefully few rape cases ever make it to court. Crime hardly ever results in punishment. Justice is delayed, and delayed again, and finally denied.
Many in the ANC are up in arms about the step aside rule because their favourites, from Jacob Zuma to Ace Magashule, who are caught in its net will not be able to dispense largesse and interfere in cases in which they are implicated. The real issue, the issue for all South Africans, is that the justice system was broken by these very same leaders who are bleating now. It needs fixing.
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