BARNEY MTHOMBOTHI: It is time Ramaphosa leveled with us about state capture
'Opening up is not a sign of weakness. To the contrary, it may strengthen his position. Trust is an important component in leadership'
EXTRACT
But hang on a minute. Not so fast. To suggest that state capture is all Zuma's doing is not only a lie but a complete cop-out. It's akin to arguing that Hendrik Verwoerd alone was responsible for apartheid. That's pulling the wool over our eyes. The entire party, especially the top leadership, is complicit.
What is missing - and what those who smugly sat in the inner sanctums of power with Zuma want to avoid - is full and honest disclosure. During the Watergate scandal in the US, a high-ranking Republican senator put this seminal question to Richard Nixon: what did the president know, and when did he know it? President Cyril Ramaphosa and his cohorts need to respond to such a question. What was their role in the state capture debacle and why did they choose to stay silent, which was itself a criminal dereliction of duty.
The state capture scandal is so daring, so audacious, it's hard to get your head around it. The chutzpah is breathtaking. How did they pull it off? How does one begin to explain to a stranger that a foreign family arrived in the country with nothing but a few belongings in a portmanteau and proceed to rob the entire country? The whole thing is highly perplexing and infuriating, but one also has to admire the genius of it, the audacity. We still don't know how it happened. We meet and share nuggets of information and shake our heads in disbelief. Totally befuddled. South Africans on the whole pride themselves on being clever and smart, always ahead of the curve. But the Guptas (it now sounds like a swear word) have shown us to be a bunch of moegoes.How could strangers steal our newly liberated country from under our noses if we were such bright sparks? We had just emerged from years of discrimination and conflict in which many people died. Many spent years wasting in exile. Nelson Ma...
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.
Subscribe now to unlock this article.
Support BusinessLIVE’s award-winning journalism for R129 per month (digital access only).
There’s never been a more important time to support independent journalism in SA. Our subscription packages now offer an ad-free experience for readers.
Cancel anytime.
Questions? Email helpdesk@businesslive.co.za or call 0860 52 52 00. Got a subscription voucher? Redeem it now.