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Zuma and his political attack dogs couldn’t cow soft-spoken Thuli Madonsela, hooray

Saturday April 02 2016

Two years or so ago, I met South Africa’s Public Protector Thuli Madonsela in Dakar, where I had gone to moderate a discussion on how to “silence the guns by 2020” under the auspices of the African Union. She was one of my panellists, alongside “Baba” Olusegun Obasanjo and a couple of other leading Africans.

I was disappointed by Thuli. I mean, when you hear of a “Public Protector” of a country like South Africa, you immediately conjure up images of a crime-ridden place, not only crawling with all sorts of “tsotsis” at every street corner in cities and townships but also home to the highest murder rates in Africa. This is apart, of course, from the white collar crimes that the successor-state to apartheid has engendered.

So I expected this Thuli to look and sound protective, tough and severe, some kind of Superwoman, to make South African thugs at all levels shiver at the mere mention of her name.

Instead of a fire-eating Amazon, the woman I found did not look like she could protect a baby from flies, let alone the sharks that seem to be in control of South Africa’s political and economic future.

In an introductory private conversation, I asked her how anyone could explain things like Nkandla happening in South Africa, after all the suffering of the people of that country under apartheid and after a magnificent constitution had been promulgated. (Nkandla, by the way, is the manorial residence of President Jacob Zuma on which public money was spent in upgrades ostensibly meant to take care of “security”).

In a soft and shy, almost apologetic manner, Thuli mumbled something about the difficulty of implementing a progressive constitution in a political climate controlled by ruffians. In her unassuming manner, this was also the principal message she conveyed during the discussion, calling on everyone to join in the fight against corruption as a prerequisite for peace on the continent.

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I had my reservations about the ability of this sweet lady to make anything happen, especially as I watched the bullyboys in Pretoria tear into her, literally accusing her of being a traitor to the freedom of her country. It was as if she were Vorster himself. Or Verwoerd. Or Malan.

Now, Zuma is a bully who does not hesitate to milk his past as a liberation fighter who went to Robben Island and was exiled. He called in these debts during debates in parliament. But even the relentless use of his political attack-dogs could not – and cannot – hide the fact that he is a seriously flawed politician who has monumental ethics issues to grapple with.

My reservations concerning Thuli and her soft-spoken manner evaporated last Thursday when the Constitutional Court of South Africa unanimously backed her office, work and findings, and castigated Zuma and his parliamentary cronies for failing to uphold the Constitution. Now Zuma has been ordered to pay that percentage of the Nkandla costs that went into swimming pools, chicken runs and goat pens, dubious security installations to say the least.

This brings us to the realisation that institutions, systems, laws and regulations are to be trusted more than individuals, who may be here today and nowhere tomorrow. The fact that South Africa has a robust constitution has helped the Constitutional Court to take on the executive and administer a stinging rebuke to a delinquent president.

The lament by Thuli in Dakar has found an echo in the decision of the Constitutional Court. For this to happen, it was important for a good constitution to exist. It exists because of the farsightedness of high-minded men and women of conscience who crafted it two decades ago. It took 11 men of conscience sitting on the Bench on Thursday to operationalise it and make it a living letter.

But let’s not forget the power of agency. Soft-voiced Thuli was not cowed by the political thugs. She stood her ground till a powerful institution intervened in her behalf.

For his part, Zuma still has to deal with the fallout from complaints by his compatriots and members of his government who claim that a certain Gupta family from India have been, as it were, running Zuma’s government.

When will it end, Jacob?

Jenerali Ulimwengu is chairman of the board of the Raia Mwema newspaper and an advocate of the High Court in Dar es Salaam. E-mail: [email protected]

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