First thing on Monday morning, when the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) interim report on malfeasance at Tembisa Hospital was yet to be presented to the public, the SA ambassador to France was alive in Paris. The really hard evidence that will be difficult to refute, in the form of the analysis of text messages that passed between the baddies involved in the subject matter of the Madlanga commission, had yet to emerge, and Julius Malema was a free man.
By midday on Wednesday the SIU interim report was in the public domain, the ambassador was deceased, apparently by his own hand, the evidence before the commission of police crime intelligence head Lt-Gen Dumisani Khumalo had commenced, to devastating effect, and Malema had been convicted in the East London magistrate’s court for discharging a firearm in public seven long years ago.
The timing of Malema’s conviction is the only coincidence of random nature in all these synchronous developments. The SIU interim report was made public as a form of damage control to counter what was coming in the commission, and the death is apparently unfortunate collateral damage attributable to the unwillingness of the ambassador to face the commission, at which the hard evidence is yet to be completed.
Why the SIU developed an interim report for public release is difficult to fathom, especially as it has now telegraphed its plans to rake back loot from those involved in the Tembisa Hospital looting. The latter will promptly arrange to hide the loot or move it offshore, thereby thwarting the “search and seizure” operations the SIU plans. The malfeasance goes back to 2018 at least. Babita Deokaran died four years and one month ago in a hail of bullets for her whistle-blowing, and the SIU investigations are scheduled to continue until 2027. Why an interim report now? Why make it public?
The comradely culture of corruption with impunity in SA will end only when the capacity of the state to deal with it effectively is beefed up in the manner required by the Constitutional Court. The establishment of the single independent body of specialists who are outside executive control that the court requires has never been more urgent.
Paul Hoffman
Director, Accountability Now
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