The failure of opposition parties to impeach the president in Parliament this week has presented an opportunity for action to be taken on a grander scale against businesses that profited from some of the illegal developments at Jacob Zuma’s home in Nkandla.
After the Constitutional Court last week handed a historic judgment against President Jacob Zuma and the National Assembly for violating the constitution and ignoring recommendations that were provided by the public protector, some major steps need to be taken for the people to receive some closure and seal the taps of corruption once and for all.
With all that has transpired over the last few weeks, there is still no reason why the National Assembly and the ad hoc committee that was established cannot continue investigating and arresting those who grossly manipulated the system to enrich themselves.
Taking action
This is the time for South Africans to look beyond the resignation or impeachment of the president by acknowledging that it was not only Zuma who unduly benefited.
The Nkandla feeding frenzy has unimaginable ripple effects and if we really want to go deep, those who pocketed taxpayers’ money must reveal the extent of their opulent lifestyles. I would bet my bottom dollar that some of the flashy joints on Florida Road in Morningside, Durban, were booming at the height of the Nkandla feeding frenzy.
As much as we are a nation in peril, with many calling for the president to resign, the republic still needs to establish how the contractors and officials from the Department of Public Works were able to inflate and implement mark-ups on their services, which resulted in a gross inflation on prices in the supply chain process.
Next to the president stepping down or being removed, holding those who benefited from corruption is the next best option. This investigation will enable us to identify the companies, officials and individuals directly responsible for the ridiculous prices in the upgrades.
It will also give ordinary citizens a glimpse into the world of tenderpreneurship and how scores of businesses have unduly benefited from using the same tactics in other departments where taxpayers’ money was used. As much as the tendering and contracting with government has proven beneficial to the growth of many black businesses, the Nkandla debacle is proof that these processes can be exploited for maximum-greed.
Corrupt scumbags
The reality of this situation is that we have corrupt scumbags masquerading as entrepreneurs, giving a bad name to many other black businesspeople in South Africa who are doing things by the book, trying to make a difference in their communities.
Zuma alone coming up with the cash to pay for Nkandla is simply not good enough from a business and economic viewpoint, because it gives those who might have implemented gross exaggerations in their mark-ups a get-out-of-jail-free card.
This is undoubtedly another scar on the political consciousness of the nation as it shows how far the rot of corruption has set in the various segments of government and contracting for business.
Nkandla has further reinforced our belief as ordinary folks that the majority of politicians, not just in South Africa, but across the world, are corrupt and spineless. They are as spineless as the private and public institutions fighting among themselves to capture the South African state and all the riches that come with it.
Robert Walker, the president of the Population Institute in the UK, once wrote an article published in the Huffington Post a number of years ago that still rings in my head when politicians get caught with their pants down or their hand in the cookie jar. He said that numerous species of slugs, worms, spiders and other spineless creatures were in rapid decline.
He quoted a report that warned the rising human population was and is currently threatening one out of five invertebrate species with extinction.
He continued: “However you might personally feel about bugs and other invertebrates, the decline of invertebrate populations is not good news for humans and other vertebrate species. In terms of our long-term survival, we’re all in this together.
Still, at least one invertebrate species is thriving. The spineless politician (homo sapiens politicus) is doing quite well. In fact, it is thriving. Its vertebrate cousin (that is, the politician with a spine), on the other hand, is nearly extinct.”
For many South Africans in the post-1994 era, we have yet to see economic justice and the Nkandla debacle is fuelling the flames of regime change in South Africa.
However, least we forget, Zuma paying back the money is small change compared with what has transpired in the bigger scheme of things.
* Ayanda Mdluli is the senior writer of Glasshouse Communication Management. He writes in his personal capacity.
** The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of Independent Media.
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