By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Former Public Protector Thuli Madonsela has cautioned South Africans against voting for corrupt politicians in the upcoming national and provincial elections.
Madonsela told eNCA that if the likes of former president Jacob Zuma were to be brought back to public office, they’d bring the country into “total collapse.”
“For me it sounds bizarre as somebody who was in the ANC and knowing that MK is not owned by any person. Just from an ethics point of view, I’m shocked by president Zuma, I’m also shocked by the decision of the IEC to decide that if a court of law decided that if his sentence is 15 months by remission of sentence, the president has not overruled a court of law and his sentence is shorter.”
She said, she is shocked by the decision because “it violates the principle of the separation of powers.”
“It reminds me of a time under apartheid when Parliament created a higher code of Parliament to overrule the Supreme Court of South Africa. For us as South Africans, we should not forget that he is a person who has refused to obey the Constitution. We should not forget that he is a person who sold the country to the Guptas and repurposed many of our state entities to do the work and reach his family and the family of the Gupta’s.
“The people of South Africa should not forget that because if he does come back into power, he will do just that, he will finish that job,” Madonsela said.
Many of the revelations from the state capture inquiry concern the relationship between two families – the Zumas, centred on the former president, and the Guptas, three Indian-born brothers who moved to South Africa after the fall of apartheid.
State capture describes a form of corruption in which businesses and politicians conspire to influence a country’s decision-making process to advance their own interests. As most democracies have laws to make sure this does not happen, state capture also involves weakening those laws, and neutralising any agencies that enforce them.
The two families became so closely linked that a joint term was coined for them – the “Zuptas”.
All parties have denied the allegations against them, describing them as politically motivated.
The Guptas owned a portfolio of companies that enjoyed lucrative contracts with South African government departments and state-owned conglomerates. They also employed several Zuma family members – including the president’s son, Duduzane – in senior positions.
The allegations eventually brought the Zuma presidency to a premature end last year and prompted the Guptas to leave South Africa.
The Guptas, who moved to South Africa from India after apartheid fell in 1994, ran businesses ranging from uranium and coal mining to media and information technology.
They also damaged the reputations of various illustrious firms that had done business with the Guptas.
Ethical lapses were highlighted at the global accounting giant KPMG, management consultants McKinsey and Bain and Co, and the German IT company, SAP. Bell Pottinger, a London-based PR firm with a history of representing repressive governments, was dealt a fatal blow, closing down over its dealings with the Guptas.
The upcoming elections set for May 29th are anticipated to be the most fiercely contested polls since the advent of democracy 30 years ago.