The Madlanga commission of inquiry — and the numerous arrests already associated with it – seems like a success. In reality, it is in great danger of being a failure.
There is a simple reason for this. Our political system, governance structures and mechanisms as well as accountability measures are all geared towards rewarding those who perpetuate the system as it is today, rather than those who seek to turn things around. It rewards politicians who profit from the status quo. It doesn’t protect or reward whistleblowers. It doesn’t elevate the upstanding civil servants who choose honesty rather than criminality. It incentivises and rewards the bad behaviour that has brought South Africa to such a sorry state.
Let’s start with an example of this perverse incentive right at the top: President Cyril Ramaphosa and his cabinet. Before 2019, Ramaphosa vowed to trim our bloated cabinet. Former president Jacob Zuma came to power in 2009 with debts to communist allies, trade unions, nationalists and the ANC Youth League plus financial backers who wanted him to appoint their own people to the cabinet. Zuma appointed 36 ministers. Zuma’s predecessor, Thabo Mbeki, had a cabinet of 28 ministers and just 10 deputy ministers. Nelson Mandela’s cabinet at times numbered just 24 ministers and 16 deputy ministers.
Ramaphosa was supposedly going to be the lean and mean cabinet guy. Yet, because he has to pacify his comrades plus the leaders of the GNU, he has a cabinet that now stands at 32 ministers and 43 deputies. What do these 75 people do?
So, no matter the nobility of Ramaphosa’s utterances and intentions, to stay in power he continues with Zuma’s bad ways. The system rewards him with the presidency, to continue to be as wasteful a leader as his nemesis Zuma.
The DA used to bang on all the time about Zuma and Ramaphosa’s “bloated” cabinets. Now that they sit in Ramaphosa’s cabinet, they are mostly quiet about it. The system has rewarded them with positions to accept the type of rot they have previously condemned.
Will the changes that the Madlanga commission will surely recommend be implemented? Look at the Zondo commission. After finding that untold millions, perhaps billions, were stolen at our intelligence services through slush funds and other corrupt schemes, Zondo recommended that the oversight roles of parliament’s joint standing committee on intelligence and the inspector-general of intelligence be strengthened.
Well, next week marks 12 months since Ramaphosa suspended inspector-general of intelligence Imtiaz Fazel. “So, who is watching the spies?” asked investigative outfit AmaBhungane last week. Who is watching the corrupt elements stealing the country blind?
The intelligence services oversight system has not changed. Ramaphosa has no incentive to stem the corruption because the intelligence agencies are in his pocket now. The system rewards politicians who make a show of acting but leave it unchanged, and thus open for corruption.
Perhaps the most alarming testimony to come out of the Madlanga commission was delivered last week by taxi boss Joe “Ferrari” Sibanyoni. He gave a masterclass on how the construction and other mafias, in almost all industries, extort legitimate businesses. Incorrectly citing the Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act (claiming it prescribes that at least 30% of the value of designated public contracts be subcontracted to targeted groups, including township and rural enterprises if they meet technical specifications), armed gangs muscled in on construction sites, mines and many other public and private projects. They demanded, and received, a 30% cut for free. If you don’t comply, you leave. Or die.
This has been written about in this magazine and elsewhere for a decade. Billion-rand projects have been held up or abandoned. Now that it has been spoken about openly, will the legislation be overhauled and the mafias attacked with vigour?
No. The politicians who should — and can — stop it, benefit from these construction mafias. The cops and civil servants who should arrest the thugs are paid by the mafia bosses, as we have heard from the Madlanga commission, and so are motivated to continue with the corruption.
There is no incentive to stop the rot. The incentive is the other way. Unless we change the system to ensure that politicians, civil servants, whistleblowers and private citizens are encouraged to act honestly and openly, we will continue as we have done for decades to come. This is the great challenge now for Madlanga — and South Africa.
