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Paul Pretorius, SC, who headed up the state’s legal team at the Zo ndo Commission, believes South Africa might be facing a renewed and ‘more sinister’ form of State Capture. He made the remarks at a University of Pretoria’s GIBS business school discussion about lesson learned from the drawn out Zondo enquiry.

“Despite what has been promised, the independence of the Hawks – which resides within the SA Police Service – and the Investigating Directorate in the National Prosecuting Authority, that independence is not yet secure”.

He noted that organised crime and corruption have still been allowed to flourish, even after all the promises of holding the guilty to account. “Why do the ringleaders continue, and I stress continue – to receive protection?” he asked as he discussed how South Africa is facing a crisis in it’s failure to deal with crime.

Pretorius also believes the country is correct in using the word mafia when speaking about crime and corruption within our politics and business. Trusting in business leaders and government to when they ‘promise to do better’ is also a pointless exercise unless the laws are enforced by independent agencies.

To be truly independent, SA needed “specialist, highly trained investigators” with modern resources and complete security of tenure.

“Businesses have previously signed integrity pledges and it has meant absolutely nothing.”

The talk included the president of Business Unity SA, Bonang Mohale, who shared his beliefs. He told the audience that ‘SA was not on its way to becoming a failed state: it already had the hallmarks of a failed state or a mafia state.’

“29 Years into SA’s democracy, the country had developed a whole new nomenclature based on government failures. There’s load shedding, water shedding – and fuel shedding.”

According to News24, the event which was held in partnership with South African Chamber of Commerce UK, was very short so there was little time to delve deeper into the discussions, but all the speakers agreed that business had a huge role to play in ensuring that SA avoids becoming a completely failed state.

What exactly business can do in the current political and financial environment is however not so clear. Everyone did however agree that businesses can contribute to the protection of whistleblowers by creating an independent fund to support them. But this seems more of a treatment than a cure.

“Countries, like airlines, take a long time to die – but die they do.”

Scary words. How to stop the scourge of a parasitic government and business mafia is becoming a question that should take more precedence.

What to do?

[source:news24]