ANC's political thuggery will lead to its demise
The forced disbandment of the Directorate of Special Operations (DSO,
or "Scorpions") by the ANC yesterday underscores the post-Polokwane
drift of the ruling party into political thuggery. It happened in the
same week that two DA activists were brutally attacked by ANC
supporters in the Mogoba informal settlement near Daveyton, and ANC
loyalists threatened to kill Mosiuoa Lekota and Mbhazima Shilowa.
Yesterday, the ANC used its majority in Parliament to muscle through
two bills which replace the Scorpions with a Directorate for Priority
Crime Investigation and locate the new outfit in the South African
Police Services (SAPS) rather than the National Prosecuting Authority
(NPA). Locating the new unit in the SAPS will not only render it far
less effective, but will undermine its independence. It is far easier
for politicians to interfere with the work of the SAPS than the NPA
because of the constitutional guarantee that the NPA must operate
"without fear of favour."
Given the success of the Scorpions, there is no rational,
public-interest argument for disbanding the unit, and the ANC has
never been able to muster one. It is telling that not one political
party or civil society organisation supported the decision to kill off
the Scorpions. I doubt whether there are many people outside the
ruling clique of the ANC who think it is a good idea.
ANC Secretary-General Gwede Mantashe admitted that the decision was
taken to protect the ANC when I met with him at Luthuli House earlier
this year. He said, quite emphatically, that the Scorpions were being
disbanded because the unit was targeting ANC leaders. Jacob Zuma,
Blade Nzimande, Ngoako Ramatlhodi, Billy Masetlha, Nyami Booi (who was
yesterday appointed Chairman of the ANC's parliamentary caucus), Thaba
Mufamadi and Playfair Morule have all been investigated by the
Scorpions.
The nation's most effective corruption and crime-busting force been
sacrificed to protect the narrow, selfish interests of the ruling
party's leadership cabal. As constitutional expert, David Unterhalter,
told the Pretoria High Court during Hugh Glenister's bid to stop the
government from disbanding the Scorpions: "This is not being done in
order to create a better oiled machine, it is being done to carry out
the narrow interests of the ANC as a political party".
The ANC leadership may be celebrating the Scorpions' demise, but it
should be worried; worried because, in killing off the Scorpions, it
has revealed everything that is wrong with the ruling party. The ANC
has demonstrated its contempt for Parliament, its contempt for the
views of the people and its contempt for the Constitution.
The dissolution of the Scorpions is the logical outcome of the ANC's
model of closed, patronage politics in which the interests of the
party trump the rights of citizens and the higher law of the party
means independent institutions must be undermined or taken over if
they thwart the power abuse of the ANC's ruling clique.
The process through which the DSO was dissolved bore all the hallmarks
of closed, patronage politics, too. The initial decision to break up
the unit was taken by Jacob Zuma and his inner circle. It was then
passed as a resolution by approximately 4000 delegates at the ANC's
national conference at Polokwane in December last year. After that the
ANC in Parliament just went through the legal motions of implementing
the Polokwane decision, taken by people who were unelected by,
unrepresentative of, and unaccountable to the people of South Africa.
From beginning to end Parliament was sidelined, abused, and railroaded
by the ANC. The clearest indication yet that Parliament is being run
from Luthuli House came yesterday when Gwede Mantashe arrived at
Parliament to announce changes to the ANC's parliamentary caucus.
Mantashe has never been elected to office by the voters. He is not a
Member of Parliament. He is a member of the South African Communist
Party – a party that has never stood for election but now demands one
third of all the ANC's seats in Parliament. And it demands the right
to take decisions on behalf of the ANC and then impose such decisions
on Parliament. This takes the logic of closed, unaccountable, crony
politics to its logical conclusion. It entirely negates the struggle
to achieve democracy in South Africa.
The first test of democracy is the holding of free and fair elections,
the result of which must be accepted by all parties.
The second (and more difficult) test to pass is the willingness of the
winning party to be called to account, and to have its decisions
weighed and measured by independent institutions against the yardstick
of a bill of rights and just laws. This test of democracy requires
that ruling parties accept limitations on their powers by institutions
acting in the interests of the people as a whole, not just the ruling
clique of the majority party.
The third test is whether the ruling party will voluntarily cede power
when it is defeated at the polls or resort to violence, intimidation
and thuggery in order to stay in office. We are yet to submit to that
test, but the signs are not good. The ANC is growing increasingly
intolerant of opposition, and its intolerance is manifested both in
the militarisation of its discourse and the brutal behaviour of its
supporters.
This week I visited two DA activists in the Mogoba informal settlement
who had been violently attacked by a gang of men known to be members
and supporters of the ANC. They had been hacked with axes and
bludgeoned with shovels, and one of their homes was burned to the
ground. Deputy Minister of Justice, Johnny de Lange, callously
dismissed the whole episode as a DA publicity stunt.
Yesterday, ANC supporters tried to disrupt a rally held by the former
Minister of Defence, Mosiuoa Lekota, who plans to launch a breakaway
party from the ANC. The ANC thugs chanted "Kill Shilowa, kill Lekota".
With the warning signs so clear, we must succeed in one of our key
aims in the 2009 election – to hold the ANC below a two-thirds
majority, and thereby safeguard the rights entrenched in our
Constitution. The political realignment currently underway makes this
goal achievable.
The dissolution of the Scorpions is a Pyrrhic victory for the ANC: The
ruling party has won this battle, but lost any moral authority it once
had. Opinion formers that once mollycoddled the ANC now openly voice
their disapproval. Journalists that once soft-pedalled the excesses of
the ANC are now more inclined to interrogate its motives. Many of its
own supporters know, deep down, that the ANC is no longer the party of
Luthuli, Sisulu and Mandela. The spell has been irrevocably broken.
By destroying the Scorpions and resorting to thuggish tactics against
its opponents, the ANC is showing its true colours. In one sense, this
is a good thing. It confirms in the minds of more people that the ANC
is morally bankrupt. It sends out the clear message that the only way
for democracy to succeed is for South Africans to band together behind
a party that puts the Constitution first. I believe that the events of
the past week will prove to be a crucial step towards breaking the
ANC's dominance.
Best Wishes
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