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South Africa is living through a moment of intense political theatre. All around us, charlatans vie for our attention, sowing so much chaos and confusion that the truth becomes hard to distil.
The Section 194 inquiry into the fitness of the Public Protector to hold office is but one act in this destructive play.
The Public Protector herself, incompetent and cunning as she is, does not act alone, but in concert with those who stand to benefit from the State Capture project and who battle for power ahead of the December ANC conference. Everyone has something to gain and even more to lose.
Alongside Busisiwe Mkhwebane is advocate Dali Mpofu SC, who has made a fine art of blustering and throwing around insults, whether telling his colleague, advocate Michelle le Roux, to “shut up!” during the Zondo Commission or abusing process during the Section 194 inquiry.
Defending the indefensible
Mpofu is comfortable defending the indefensible with cursory references to the law. Conveniently, and perhaps this is the very point, in the form of the Public Protector he has found a client with a very deep pocket (ours, given that she is spending public money on the fruitless matters she has brought to court).
Mkhwebane has racked up legal bills tallying R146,998,047. At no point do we as the public footing this bill know how much her counsel has been paid. In addition, several costs orders have been made against the Public Protector herself for scurrilous and vexatious litigation. Some questions arise here:
- Is there a list of the precise dates of such costs orders?
- What bills of costs have been presented by the State Attorney?
- When were these taxed?
- What, if anything, was in fact paid and when?
- What execution was levied, on which assets, when, and what amounts were then recovered?
Of course, none of the answers to these questions is in the public domain.
But back to Mpofu and the Section 194 inquiry; after weeks of stalling legal tactics and showmanship, Mpofu told the chair of the inquiry, ANC MP Qubudile Dyantyi: “You’re going to regret this. Your day will come.”
A verbatim account of the exchange went like this: “The only reason I’m tolerating what you are doing to me is for the reason of my client, otherwise you are not entitled to abuse me like you are abusing me,” Mpofu continued.
“I’m senior to you in many ways, not just in age, but in many ways. You know it. So, you have no right to abuse me. But fine, you have the power now, you can exercise it, but you’ll pay one day, ja.”
Dyantyi, smiling, asked: “Are you threatening me now?”
To which Mpofu responded: “Ja.”
Dyantyi asked him to conclude and Mpofu said: “Actually it is not a threat, as I said, it is a promise.”
Legal Practice Council
A lawyer’s stock in trade is language and force of argument. This disgraceful exchange displays neither. The code of conduct for practitioners is clear about bringing the legal profession into disrepute, which surely Mpofu has done.
While the Legal Practice Council (LPC) itself appears ready to take on someone as patently unfit and unstable as advocate Malesela Teffo, counsel in the never-ending Senzo Meyiwa trial — hastily and appropriately — Mpofu is given licence. How else can the absurd ruling regarding his “shut up!” comment to Le Roux be interpreted?
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Mpofu’s argument was that “no one from [his] Eastern Cape village would have found it rude if [he] told them to shut up in isiXhosa.” The LPC ruled that Mpofu’s use of this phrase at the Zondo Commission was “not disrespectful” — except Mpofu was not speaking to someone from an Eastern Cape village and he knows it, we all know it.
We also all understand that these arguments are nonsensical and designed only to subvert legal processes. In the destructive theatre which plays itself out daily, there are two narratives: the truth and then the smoke and mirrors, the lies and disinformation that are peddled.
Zuma’s ‘terminal illness’
This week, Jacob Zuma said he was available for the position of chairperson of the ANC. Zuma has been declared terminally ill and unable to serve his prison sentence for contempt of court. Yet, we all know this is untrue, but the lie about his terminal illness continues to be placed in the public domain.
And so, amid the obfuscation, we need to keep our collective wits about us, as “bit actors” on the outside of organised party politics play their part in ensuring that Zuma’s proxy becomes president and that the legal system becomes so bent that it is unable to prosecute those implicated in State Capture. Their goal is to destroy the edifice of our constitutional democracy for their own narrow gain.
John Hlophe and Iqbal Survé
In a similar vein, Western Cape Judge President John Hlophe continues his destruction of the Western Cape High Court division even after being found guilty of misconduct. Our President, despite the recommendation by the Judicial Service Commission to suspend Hlophe, dithers, too afraid to offend anyone.
As we watch and wait, Hlophe continues to be embroiled in an unseemly spat with his deputy, Judge President Patricia Goliath. But Hlophe is another bit actor in the jousting for power — add to that Iqbal Survé’s Independent Media and one can understand how the theatre of smoke and mirrors is destroying our institutions.
This past week, the most recent Afrobarometer survey found that faith in the President and the ANC is declining. That will come as no surprise to anyone even cursorily following South African politics.
After he flew back from London to address the electricity crisis, we saw Ramaphosa grinning while meeting Eskom board members. The grin has become an irksome accessory to this increasingly floundering presidency. In his weekly newsletter, Ramaphosa said: “For every person living in this country, the past two weeks of load shedding have been extremely frustrating and challenging. The widespread public anger is wholly justified.”
Gaslighting
As Ramaphosa landed from London, the Cabinet declared that it was “wholly committed” to solving the electricity crisis. We drew no comfort from this.
In the meantime, Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe told us: “South Africans see themselves as an island, when the electricity crisis is a global phenomenon.” He was addressing the media on Thursday after signing three project agreements under Bid Window 5 of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme. There, government officials were seen patting themselves on the back for a job which should have been done years ago.
Mantashe may wish to gaslight South Africans, but we are able to distinguish government ineptitude and corruption from a global crisis.
Ramaphosa is right — there are no quick fixes to the electricity crisis, given serial government inaction over many years, but unfortunately South Africans, often without power for seven hours a day, are battling to be optimistic even as he says: “…if we look just beyond the most immediate crisis, there are real signs of progress and good reasons to be optimistic”.
The President’s words now carry less weight with each passing day.
In the meantime, the theatre of the absurd inevitably continues, with the play’s denouement still mostly unclear. DM
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