LETTER: No ANC faction must control the independent corruption busters so urgently needed
When politics becomes a toxic vehicle for criminal activity the need for state intervention is obvious
23 February 2022 - 15:00
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Drilling down, one finds a professional policeman ranged against a bad politician. Cele was fired from the job Sitole now holds after the Moloi board of inquiry found Cele to be “incompetent and dishonest”.
The finding came in the wake of revelations by the public protector about the World Cup leases for police headquarters in Pretoria and Durban.
However, Sitole has problems of his own in relation to the Nasrec grabber saga. If the president chooses to dismiss both Cele and Sitole it will not adequately address the malaise in law enforcement. Neither of them has been prosecuted, nor is any prosecution likely.
The truth is that ANC faction fighting is at least in part a spat between those who want to end the culture of corruption with impunity in the ANC (via the “new dawn”) and those who so value their impunity that they are prepared to foment insurrection to keep it.
While it is right that state apparatus should not involve itself in party politics, when politics becomes a toxic vehicle for criminal activity the need for state intervention is obvious. The root of the problem is rampant corruption in the ANC.
No faction of the ANC should have control of the independent corruption busters that are now needed so urgently. The fact that nothing has come of the prosecution of the 12 suspects initially identified as the originators of the July insurrection could be attributable to ANC infighting or to the provenance of their identities being the “fruit of the poisoned tree” and accordingly inadmissible in any contemplated prosecutions.
What remains clear is that the impunity of the corrupt in SA will continue until proper compliance with the binding requirements of the Glenister decisions is put in place via the establishment of a Chapter Nine integrity commission to investigate and prosecute the corrupt using duly admissible evidence. It seems political parties are converging on this proposed reform.
Paul Hoffman, SC Accountability Now
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an email with your comments to letters@businesslive.co.za. Letters of more than 300 words will be edited for length. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
LETTER: No ANC faction must control the independent corruption busters so urgently needed
When politics becomes a toxic vehicle for criminal activity the need for state intervention is obvious
John Dludlu suggests in his most recent column that the choice is between police commissioner Khehla Sitole or police minister Bheki Cele (“Ramaphosa must make a tough choice to fix law enforcement”, February 22).
Drilling down, one finds a professional policeman ranged against a bad politician. Cele was fired from the job Sitole now holds after the Moloi board of inquiry found Cele to be “incompetent and dishonest”.
The finding came in the wake of revelations by the public protector about the World Cup leases for police headquarters in Pretoria and Durban.
However, Sitole has problems of his own in relation to the Nasrec grabber saga. If the president chooses to dismiss both Cele and Sitole it will not adequately address the malaise in law enforcement. Neither of them has been prosecuted, nor is any prosecution likely.
The truth is that ANC faction fighting is at least in part a spat between those who want to end the culture of corruption with impunity in the ANC (via the “new dawn”) and those who so value their impunity that they are prepared to foment insurrection to keep it.
While it is right that state apparatus should not involve itself in party politics, when politics becomes a toxic vehicle for criminal activity the need for state intervention is obvious. The root of the problem is rampant corruption in the ANC.
No faction of the ANC should have control of the independent corruption busters that are now needed so urgently. The fact that nothing has come of the prosecution of the 12 suspects initially identified as the originators of the July insurrection could be attributable to ANC infighting or to the provenance of their identities being the “fruit of the poisoned tree” and accordingly inadmissible in any contemplated prosecutions.
What remains clear is that the impunity of the corrupt in SA will continue until proper compliance with the binding requirements of the Glenister decisions is put in place via the establishment of a Chapter Nine integrity commission to investigate and prosecute the corrupt using duly admissible evidence. It seems political parties are converging on this proposed reform.
Paul Hoffman, SC
Accountability Now
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an email with your comments to letters@businesslive.co.za. Letters of more than 300 words will be edited for length. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.
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