Jail the state capturers

We welcome the start of the public hearings of the State Capture Commission, instituted by President Cyril Ramaphosa. It’s a fine example for the rest of Africa and the world of how SA deals with state capture and corruption.

It should evoke confidence among the citizens, the electorate and foreign direct investors alike. No country can prevent corruption.

Even the squeaky-clean Swedes were the ones who, having been of great support in the Struggle, corrupted a newly elected ANC government with an arms deal of which they should be ashamed.

We wish Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo well with his leadership of the commission. As South Africa’s second-most senior judicial officer, he is perfectly placed to cut corruption to the bone.

Corruption is a disgusting stain on our otherwise very proud record as a nation. We overcame a crime against humanity, as the United Nations defined apartheid.

It was an offshoot of colonialism, an equally disgusting blot on humanity which only the most unrepentant racists refuse to recognise. That we overcame colonialism of a special type, that we overthrew the most powerful army in Africa, that we displaced a racist and fascist nuclear power was truly remarkable.

We gave the world the most admired of self-sacrificial revolutionaries, the universally loved and respected founding president of South Africa, Nelson Mandela, and the ANC, the world’s oldest liberation movement.

It is disgusting, therefore, that Jacob Zuma, a former president of the country and of the liberation movement, should stand accused today of having aided and abetted the Gupta family to capture the state and steal billions.

As a nation, we are more than hurt and embarrassed. We are mad as hell.

We want this monumental betrayal of our glorious Struggle fully exposed. And the guilty sent to jail. 

Nothing else will still our many martyrs turning in their graves.

Nothing else will help us to overcome the most appalling poverty we inherited from apartheid colonialism.

Nothing else will still the most pitiful sound of our children crying themselves to sleep because they are hungry.

Because of corruption.