SITTING AT THE HELM OF A CORRUPT STATE

Crime and corruption has become order of a day everywhere you go in South Africa, it has become a norm, a culture, a tradition in such a way that one would end up saying (its fine, there is nothing could be done). In fact there is a lot that could be done to stop deterioration of crime and corruption in our country. Let’s look back before the current leadership took over, did I say leadership!? No! The current corrupt elite took over. The days of Vusi Pikoli and President Thabo Mbeki, those where the days of openness, logic, integrity and vigorous attempt to combat crime and corruption. The days of Directorate of Special Operations (DSO), colloquially referred to as the Scorpions. I remember their catchy slogan ‘Loved by the people, Respected by peers, Feared by criminals’. You could feel the big guns are intimidated from the tone of their voices, whenever you mention the word ‘Scorpions’. Of course only those who knew very well they are on wrong side of the law. During his tenure (Vusi Pikoli) as National Directorate of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) there was hope, faith and sense of security in our Justice System. We believed that organised crime was dealt with at a deeper level from public sector, parastatals and private sector not only on the ground from the top especially. The DSO didn’t really care, who you are? Where you are from? Who are your friends or associates? They would go on and prosecute without fear or favour. They would make sure all necessary precautions are taken before search warrants are issued, all evidence is gathered before warrants of arrests are issued and prosecute. Yep, mistakes where there but were very little for criminals to manipulate the system or get away with crime committed. Crime and corruption was curbed from the top downright to the bottom, I remember vividly the paparas drug burst, travel gate scandal (when some parliamentarians abused travel vouchers, top officials!), the mining magnet murder (Brett Keble), who would forget the police commissioner (‘my hands are clean’ Jackie Selebi, ‘he is my friend finish ‘n klaar’ referring to Glen Aglioti) and the man himself who is sitting at the helm of a corrupt state (Jacob Zuma) ‘mchini wam! Mchini wam!’ he is now the president of the country. I call him our number one lead singer of crime and corrupt state. These are few cases of many cases I would mention for now. Was there successful prosecution in any of the cases!? Yes! Yes! There was, in fact there were successful prosecutions. For example, paparas drug bust, travel gate scandal, Jackie Selebi case etc. The list goes on and on. Since Zuma became the President of the country, many of us lost hope, no accountability from top officials, no direction, no leadership, crime and corruption worsened. No thorough investigation done by the police, no precautions when handling cases, all we see is more and more police getting involved in corruption and crime. To mention one of many cases that are poorly handled by the police, Oscar Pistorius case. The investigation was not done excellently. I still believe the investigators could have done a better job, with that Oscar would have served a lengthy sentence. We have seen Richard Mdluli’s case being withdrawn, recently Adv. Nomgcobo Jiba’s case withdrawn by the newly appointed NDPP (Adv. Shaun Abrahams). One would ask, will he last? Or finally Zuma has found a man who can do his dirty job. It was first Menzi Simelane, Mxolisi Nxasana and Abrahams who is now the third head of National Prosecuting Authority since Zuma became a president. Bear in mind Vusi Pikoli’s tenure as NDPP would be ending this year (2015) if he wasn’t unfairly dismissed. Since Vusi left, the NPA has been used to protect our corrupt President (Zuma) and his cronies. With all this happening in my country I believe sanity will prevail and remember ‘every dark cloud has a silver lining’. Like Vusi Pikoli says; ‘I have not lost faith in humankind. I still believe in the goodness of humanity until proven otherwise. It has been tough, but my faith in God has never been shaken. I feel at peace with myself for doing what I did, even though I encountered extreme challenges along the way. During the difficult stretches I have always maintained that the sun would rise again and I have been hopeful that things would change for the better’. Though we going through extreme challenges let us remain hopeful, the sun will shine again.