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State of the nation: media's revisionism over Ramaphosa's role

Lately the South African media has been indulging in revisionism over Cyril Ramaphosa's, the president and man, role in the current sorry state of South Africa brought on by the Eskom energy crisis, arguably the worst period of load shedding ever, and legal, criminal and political implications for him regarding the foreign currency hidden and then stolen from his game farm Phala Phala. This event must be his Nkandla. 

Daily Maverick are among the loudest in their disingenuousness. Editors Mark Heywood, Heather Robertson and others wrote op-eds lamenting South Africa's state like Robertson's "darkness sheds light on the sorry state of South Africa".

 Another this weekend was a critique of Pravin Gordhan's failure of the Eskom portfolio since Ramaphosa appointed him public enterprises minister in 2018.

The problem with this kind of revisionism - expediently forgetting recent history - is the media, DM included, were avid Ramaphorias - supporters of Ramaphosa - until fairly recently. He (and Gordhan) was going to be our saviours. Even when he faltered, they made excuses until it looked threadbare.

DM, CapeTalk/702, Media24, Business Day, Sunday Times, etc vilified public protector Busisiwe Mkwebane and without any real evidence demanded her impeachment because she was investigating their heros Ramaphosa and Gordhan. It was, in fact, the media that lead Parliament to impeach and Ramaphosa to suspend her, a suspension the court recently struck down, criticising Ramaphosa as "biased".

It's telling the media have been silent about impeaching Ramaphosa for his role in Phala Phala that allegedly includes directing his personal police protection unit to track the thieves across borders and torturing and paying them off, if true, all crimes. But then the media cannot be said to be impartial. (Similarly, there is silence about Judge John Hlope's impeachment.)

Robertson's article ended on optimistic note that "we have embarked on the long journey of seeing out the crooked and corrupt". Have we, though? How is being worse than Mexico, Somalia and Libya, the latter two failed states and Mexico having practically lost to the cartels, a sign of optimism? To be clear, it has been getting worse over time and it's not over yet.

Not that long ago the centre-left, immediately after the dark days of Zuma and Guptas, were singing Ramaphosa's praises that he'd lead us to a promising future. The same went for those riding on his coat tails like Pravin Gordhan, once the liberal left's hero at the bridge. And, in DM too, Ramaphosa's critics/investigators like public protector Busisiwe Mkwebane were pilloried. But the absolute mediocrity and corruption of Zuma made Ramaphosa, Gordhan and those cut from the same clothe look stellar by comparison, a low bar to be meaningless.

Ramaphosa et al are creatures of a corrupt party and system. To believe otherwise is delusional. How could smart ANC and Ramaphosa watchers - media and analysts - not see what people like Moeletsi Mbeki wrote about in Architects of Poverty? 

Perhaps the only state institutions least affected by corruption are Auditor-General and Stats SA. If so, it's because as numbers people they lack the imagination. Police, NPA, Health Professions Council ... the list of corrupt and negligent departments go on. 

On a personal note about how we were affected by corruption (aside from the abstract), the inquest into my late mother's hospital death in 2017 stalled, I believe, because of essentially corrupt acts by the NPA Cape Town (DPP), police and state pathologist freely giving, on informal and friendly requests, privileged and confidential information to the accused, doctor employees and representatives of the Western Cape Government (that is on record and not our speculation). 

That and procedural mistakes and gross incompetence permanently damaged justice. (The HPCSA's irregular conduct which directly benefitted the accused in this matter also applies.) The strangely aggressive and rude Inquest Court clerk and NPA stopped responding three years ago to our requests for status, a case I believe is forever canned especially after I insisted an inquest must investigate official malfeasance. 

NPA head office under Shawn Abrahams and later the over-hyped, disappointingly ineffective Shamila Batohi never responded to our complaints. As she recently said about state corruption, how can the NPA prosecute itself.

What many people don't understand, corruption is not only financial. It covers any act that extends irregular benefits - monetary or otherwise - by, to and from officials. People think the DA-run Western Cape and city is not corrupt (don't get me started on Helen Zille, then premier and a key factor why my mother's case stalled, or I should say, why the NPA stalled it). They are under the broad definition, but at a lower level commensurate with being a small (by population and GDP) regional administration. 

(In 2019 a developer blatantly said in their application they'd pay a "development contribution" for the city to overlook negative impacts. The city consequently ignored these impacts and approved the totally inappropriate development. This is likely and anecdotally common, developments being fertile for influence peddling and politics; see contested projects around Cape Town under the DA.)

Corruption court cases have been too slow in coming and too few to instill confidence the country is "getting its law in order", Bathohi's claim it takes years to bring a successful case to court being her/their excuse for fearful inaction. The nonsense surrounding Zuma - the NPA and judges are to blame for indulging his stalling; he will die before the country gets justice here, which might not be a bad thing - weakens our already low confidence.

All wars end but I don't really believe SA will totally or ever emerge from what the ANC brought about. Eskom is an apt metaphor; the time frame of its collapse matches corruption. We saw it coming 20 years ago but did nothing. When it was upon us a decade ago, we still did nothing. Remember the ANC's and media's shrill accusations against Tony Leon-led DA's (when the party still had a soul, not the wraith it is now) slogan of "Fight back!", choosing to interpret it as racist "fight blacks" rather than the correct "fight corruption". 

Now when crime and corruption is almost bringing the country to its knees like Eskom is doing, we can't see a clear way out, losing hope. And those who can are fleeing. Already it's taken root in the social fabric, perhaps too deep to extirpate.

The media, where the shoe fits, must take blame, not for the actual state the country finds itself which is almost entirely ANC's fault (that and crony capitalism), but for not always being honest and for taking sides in their reportage. You have a huge influence which you squandered with politicking, point-scoring and agendas. While I agree with present, belated assessments about the state of the nation, I find much of it self-righteous - too much I told you so - from people who until recently appeared oblivious, by omission or commission, of what was happening under their noses. 

Perhaps if SA's media undertakes a 12-step programme to get their house I order, the kind we've been hearing about but not seeing the results of, we might feel more optimistic that effective activism still endures and can help bring about change. (See Cape Town Big Issue, Jan-Feb 2022, pp 28-30, "Journalism makes blunders" by Anton Harber.) You can start, for one just example, by downplaying the Mkwebane inquiry side show (and others like it) because that's all it ever was, not the earth shattering event the media, opinion writers and politicians on all sides make it out to be.

And we need a fearless prosecution head, not the shadow occupying the post now.

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