As we prepare to draw the curtains on 2021, there are faint, ominous noises after this week’s high court decision to order former president Jacob Zuma to return to jail.
While it might have caused a great deal of unease for those worried about forces this might unleash, it reaffirmed an important principle. SA is, or at least should strive to be, a democracy where decisions are made by the rule of law, rather than an angry mob or corrupt officials.
A bleak year in many respects, 2021 will be remembered for the Constitutional Court’s finest hour, when it affirmed itself as the supreme adjudicator of the law by delivering a 15-month jail sentence to Zuma for defying its order to testify before the inquiry into state capture.
Then came the mayhem the widely celebrated sentencing unleashed when angry mobs ran amok in parts of KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng, looting shopping malls, burning commercial buildings and flying the flag for SA as a hostile, violent destination for investors. Understandably, when the high court this week delivered the verdict ordering Zuma to return to jail, it conjured up memories of those days in July when it became clear that enforcement of the law, especially against the politically powerful and connected, came with devastating consequences.
More than 300 people were killed and hundreds of thousands lost their livelihoods, while billions of rand in lost sales, destroyed commercial buildings and withheld investments inflamed the pain of an economy already taking a pounding from the coronavirus pandemic.
Yet, most South Africans stood firm in the belief that a democracy where decisions are made by an angry mob, rather than the rule of law, is not worthy of being called that. We stood behind them, as they were failed by those entrusted to maintain law and order.
That police minister Bheki Cele remains in office is a travesty, as was the promotion of the then defence minister, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, to speaker of the National Assembly. The state security minister, Ayanda Dlodlo, should have also been shown the door — instead, she was moved to public service & administration.
It is a direct result of their failure that instead of universally celebrating the high court decision to rebuke Arthur Fraser, the now former head of the correctional services department, for unlawfully granting Zuma medical parole, people also have fear. We are left with zero confidence that the government can prevent a repeat of the events of July, and Twitter posts by purported supporters of Zuma threatening to unleash violence has only added to the worry.
That Fraser was able to get away with such action with hardly a whimper from the ANC and President Cyril Ramaphosa reflects how far SA is to redemption. Having described the July violence as an attempted insurrection, Ramaphosa’s weak reaction to Fraser’s illegal actions didn’t inspire confidence that he would be up to the task if the country’s democracy was again similarly threatened.
For voters, having felt the effect of Zuma’s disastrous stewardship of the country and disappointed by the many false dawns under Ramaphosa, 2021 was the year in which they handed the ANC its worst electoral performance since the advent of democracy, which pushed it below 50% nationally in November’s local government elections.
Unless something changes drastically, it looks likely that the party will not win an outright majority in the 2024 national elections.
The implications of such an outcome would mean some of its radical policy proposals, such as a sticking plaster for social issues like record unemployment, would at least be subjected to proper debate in parliament, rather than be pushed through to win back voters. That, of course, depends whose votes it will need to stay in power. If it has to turn to the EFF, then the country will be in serious trouble.
As we head into 2022, one thing that is sure is that our democracy will be tested again. We can’t always count on the judiciary to dig us out of a hole. Extreme vigilance is required of all of us.
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