South Africa is in a crisis. Since the unceremonious axing of former finance minister Nhlanhla Nene in December, we have limped from one pitfall to the next.
Forget about the staple of nonsense that those who think we are simple minds are going to try to feed us. Yesterday’s statement by Deputy Finance Minister Mcebisi Jonas that he was approached by the Gupta family to take over Nene’s position not only sets the record straight, it also serves to confirm what we have long suspected: we are fast becoming a captured state.
Read: 'Guptas threaten SA's sovereignty'
We have watched in horror as two of the country’s most important institutions – the SA Revenue Service and the Treasury – fight it out in the open.
We have watched helplessly as the Hawks tried to reinstate their battered credibility by claiming that Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan has a case to answer to them.
In just over four months, we have seen the indifference of our leadership, particularly President Jacob Zuma, wiping off trillions of rands from the market, sending stocks plummeting to record lows and leaving us with an all but certain downgrade by rating agencies to near junk status.
When the news of Nene’s abrupt removal came to the fore, senior government leaders, including cabinet ministers and members of the ANC’s national executive committee, professed to have been unaware of the lurking crisis.
But now we know that Ajay, Atul and Rajesh Gupta were not left in the dark. The truth is the Guptas have manipulated their proximity to power for nothing but selfish reasons. They have not only become an eyesore in our midst, but have assumed all of us to be puppets in their ridiculous experiment for influence.
And we now have a better understanding of why the landlocked kingdom of Lesotho revoked their diplomatic passports.
Jonas must be commended for his bold step and breaking his silence at the expense of his personal and political advancement. He broke his silence because, in his own words, the narrative that has grown over the state capture should be a concern to all responsible and caring South Africans, “particularly those of us who have accepted the task to lead our people”.
This is the kind of leadership that this country now needs.
The leadership that is willing to sacrifice all it has for the liberation of this country. The kind of leadership that will be able to admit to its mistakes and ask for forgiveness.
There are those who will use Jonas’ confession to score cheap political points.
There are others who will tell us “we told you so”. But this is not a time for political bickering.
What this county needs is cool heads to find a way out of the pit that has been dug by its leadership.
We need the leadership, led by Zuma, to take us into confidence and tell us what happened in the lead-up to Nene’s sacking.
We need to know what Nene did that warranted Zuma to trust private individuals instead of trusting the collective leadership of a party that was elected by more than 62 percent of the voting population.
The president, in particular, needs to come clean about his dealings with the Guptas and whether their views have ever held sway over any of his decisions.
South Africans, both black and white, are a forgiving people. If they could remove the albatross of apartheid and the untold sins the system placed on them they would not hesitate to offer a sympathetic ear to their elected president.
Mr President, more than you need your country, at this hour of darkness, your country needs you.
* Sechaba ka’Nkosi is Business Report’s News Editor.
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