LETTER: GNU lacks ability to fix SA

Mark Lowe rightly laments the inability or reluctance of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to thoroughly investigate and possibly prosecute President Cyril Ramaphosa for his curious and yet unexplained link to the stuffing of huge amounts of foreign currency into his personal furniture (“Phala Phala stuff up,” October 16).

He also expresses disappointment at the soft and ineffective parliamentary stance taken by the DA in this suspicious and irregular incident involving our president. However, Lowe exposes but a few examples of a deep national malaise afflicting our country. 

Our democracy is founded on three constitutionally devolved, supposedly separate and independent, centres of power: the judiciary, the legislature and the executive. These vital constitutional organs have now become populated, and polluted, by dubious and incompetent ANC cadres who care nothing for the diligent application of the rule of law, the effective exercise of parliamentary activity and responsible oversight, and who expect the government of national unity (GNU) to serve the interests of the ANC above those of the country.

The ANC’s careless and crass dominance of these institutions of power has resulted in underfunded courts whose functionality to bring criminals, including politicians, to book is hampered by unskilled, inexperienced legal practitioners, a conflicted and incapacitated NPA, an inadequate, poorly trained police force and an obvious political reluctance to embarrass high-level ANC politicians.

Parliament still has no home or dignified presence, lacks party political competitiveness and its oversight committees — tasked with holding the executive to account — have been window-dressed to give the impression of inclusive, authoritative functionality but are in reality weak, ineffective talkshops with no meaningful outcomes. 

The GNU executive under our smooth-talking president shows no sign of the unity, decisiveness, skill or even the political will required to achieve economic growth, deal effectively with crime and corruption, rehabilitate and restore the dignity and the purpose of parliament, or prevent our constitutional pillars of power from crumbling.

After so many years of hope and promise, the SA nation needs to start rebuilding itself anew. 

David Gant 
Kenilworth 

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