The public sector has come under unprecedented scrutiny over the past few months because of the treasure trove of leaks uncovering a sophisticated web of intrigue surrounding the capture of the state.
Parliament has waded in and instituted the first in a series of inquiries to get to the bottom of the issue.
Good luck with that, considering what happened with the Nkandla debacle and instituting parallel processes when there are outstanding remedial actions — but that warrants a discussion of its own in another column. Hopefully this time around Parliament does things by the book and has the sense not to tread on Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s toes, like it did to her predecessor.
Up first on the parliamentary podium, the South African Council of Churches’ "unburdening" report is to be unpacked. It paints a grim picture about the state of the republic and concludes that SA is not far from becoming a mafia state, if it isn’t one already.
The State Capacity Research Project’s report on capture will also get air time in the legislature.
The report is a collation of data and timelines of how one immigrant family from India has amassed great wealth by using its proximity to power.
It’s a mesmerising type of unity — the kind that makes you wonder if the same amount of energy will be focused on reforming and reshaping the fundamentals of SA Inc, starting with the corporate sector
It also plays on the mafia leitmotif, making for simultaneously captivating and frightening reading.
By all accounts, the state is rightfully fair game as society holds up a mirror to the government, insisting it be accountable to the electorate instead of being a shadowy force out to line its own pockets.
The groundswell of resistance and the outpouring of outrage have been building since October 2016, when former public protector Thuli Madonsela released the State of Capture report, in which she laid bare the underbelly of the beast. Business is outraged, the churches are seething, labour is up in arms and the nongovernmental organisations are mobilising.
It’s all hands on deck as civil society, working in collaboration with elements of the private sector, seeks to redirect the South African ship to the right course, steering it back to a path of clean governance and all the good things associated with such a state of affairs.
Everyone is in agreement that things cannot continue as they are because the situation is unsustainable.
All these good forces concur that the government has to reflect and reform. It has to introspect too.
It’s a mesmerising type of unity — the kind that makes you wonder if the same amount of energy will be focused on reforming and reshaping the fundamentals of SA Inc, starting with the corporate sector.
It’s all well and good to point out the government’s shortcomings, including the financial burden corruption has exerted on the fiscus.
But who keeps the private sector accountable? Who polices the watchers of the government?
Go to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration on any given day and witness the full horror show that is corporate SA. The commission’s rolls are bursting at the seams with heartbreaking accounts of how employees are often brutalised by the system. These are the types of cases that have unfolded before the eyes of SA’s self-appointed saviours.
The optics of mobilisation are great. In fact, the country could do with a collective mood lift. But this means nothing if the pillars upholding an unsustainable system are not demolished. The whole thing must not become another battle for unseating one set of looters with another lot of rent-seekers, a clearly undesirable outcome.
Corporate SA must also introspect — this is now the time to smash the edifice of business as usual.
• Phillip is news editor.
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