JUSTICE MALALA: Laying bare the ANC’s priorities
It took the party just months to kill the Scorpions, but years to do anything to help South Africa
Say what you will about Jacob Zuma, but the man knew the importance of using power when you have it. Zuma understood that he had to prioritise certain actions and move fast. It is something his comrades in the ANC have not learnt, even with power about to slip through their fingers at the next general election.
In the early 2000s, when his chommie Schabir Shaik was convicted of corruption and he was charged with taking bribes, Zuma understood that he could not do much about the charges themselves. What he could do was to destroy the Scorpions, the crime-fighting unit vested with special powers not generally accorded to the police. Zuma ruthlessly campaigned to unseat his rival, Thabo Mbeki, and to control the ANC. He won the party presidency in December 2007...
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