South Africa has an opportunity to prove that the law constrains even the most powerful of vested interests.
The issue is newly relevant in light of a Supreme Appeals Court ruling, Friday, that the nation’s president, Jacob Zuma, must face charges in relation to a 1999 arms deal. Under that arms deal, Zuma is accused of receiving millions of dollars in kickbacks. While he was previously charged with corruption-related offenses in relation to the deal, Zuma has avoided a trial by relying on allies in the judiciary.
Still, the arms deal is just one of many concerning situations that define Zuma’s presidency. Indeed, Zuma’s most sustaining corruption is rendered by his relationship with the Gupta oligarchs. As the BBC documents, the Guptas have used Zuma to establish a mafia shadow state in various institutions of the South African government. Where government officials attempt to challenge the Guptas interests, Zuma gets rid of them.
This record leads to one conclusion.
Zuma has shamed his African National Congress (ANC) party, and dishonored the legacy of its first president, Nelson Mandela.
But while his rendezvous with justice is long overdue, it’s also somewhat poetic.
After all, in a 2008 decision via a puppet President, Zuma disbanded the “Scorpions” law enforcement team. That elite unit was set up as a kind of South African untouchables force to pursue the most entrenched of corrupt interests. It was a symbol of a new South Africa that would serve the law rather than elites. Yet when the Scorpions investigated Zuma’s apparent corruption, he replaced them with a new unit, “the Hawks.” The Hawks are a law enforcement joke, and exist only to serve the Zuma wing of an increasingly fractured ANC.
But as I say, perhaps things will now be different. If Zuma faces trial, South Africa’s judiciary will prove to its people that the rule of law has come full circle since the dystopia of apartheid and that the nation’s imperfect institutions are improving. This is crucial to the better future of a country afflicted by some of the highest violent crime rates on Earth.
Moreover, if South Africa can turn the tide on political corruption and criminality, it should be able to dramatically increase foreign direct investment and grow its economy.
We might be witnessing a major moment in the better future of this nation.
