OPINION: It was the Daily Maverick’s Richard Poplak who provided the quintessential summation of the ConCourt judgment’s impact on Zuma’s corrupt cabal.
Of the impact the judgement has on Zuma, Poplak commented, “He was summarily dumped, along with his henchfolk, into history’s shitter”.
One can but hope that Hlaudi Motsoeneng and his team of state broadcaster propagandists are en route to the same destination.
In an article posted on this website six weeks ago I wrote: “When the country’s top advocate, Jeremy Gauntlett, acknowledged in the Constitutional Court on 9 February that Zuma breached the Constitution by defying the Public Protector’s injunction to contribute towards the costs of Nkandla, he brought to an end two years of denial. He also blew a gaping hole through the SABC’s nefarious Stalingrad strategy to keep Hlaudi Motsoeneng in control of the state broadcaster”.
“When, through Gauntlett, President Zuma admitted that the Public Protector’s findings are binding and that he would pay for ‘security features’ such as the teardrop-shaped ‘fire pool’ with a deep end and a shallow end, the cattle kraal and the chicken run, he also made it obligatory for the SABC to follow her findings and this included the Public Protector’s insistence that Hlaudi Motsoeneng #PayBackTheMoney.”
And while the amount that the current Number One must pay back has yet to be determined, Thuli Madonsela defined very precisely how much Hlaudi Motsoeneng must pay back and the reasons for her finding: In her report of 17 February 2014, ‘When Governance and Ethics Fail’ she stipulated that the financial losses sustained because of Motsoeneng’s conduct, be recovered from him.
R29 million worth of purges and promotions
She also outlined and defined these costs saying that the CCMA hearings resulting from a purge by Motsoeneng of anyone who crossed or defied him and the unjustified promotion of himself and his cronies amounted to R29 million.
What is significant here about the Constitutional Court judgment is that it stipulated very precisely that President Jacob Zuma must “personally” bear the financial burden of his corrupt behaviour.
In November last year Judge Dennis Davis ruled in the Cape High Court that Motsoeneng’s appointment was irrational and unlawful. He added that a bank would not even appoint “a deputy manager in its Kroonstad branch” with Motsoeneng’s antecedents.
‘Crippling nightmare’
Within hours of the Constitutional Court’s excoriating judgement Mathews Phosa succinctly summed up the mood of the country: “The whole country now waits with bated breath to hear whether he (Zuma), and my party, the ANC, will do the right thing and relieve us of this crippling nightmare.”
“Crippling nightmare” aptly sums up the tenure of Motsoeneng and his imbongis within the state broadcaster and government.
As with any nightmare one cannot expunge the awful images from one’s mind – the purple suits so shiny that military specification sunglasses are obligatory wear for anyone in his presence, the wildly-oscillating bloodshot eyes and the inane ramblings.
Will the party of Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo and Walter Sisulu now, finally, heed the anguished cri de coeur of one of our most accomplished journalists, Makhudu Sefara, who feels that Motsoeneng and his cabal insult the Struggle:
“When Sakina Kamwendo breaks down in tears on air because her boss is too thick to understand what is going on, you can’t but feel pity. Pity for her, for the SABC and many other great people who are unfortunate to work there. Pity for our country that must be subjected to this misrule, to this ridiculous joke of having such a major corporation that serves such a critical democratic role being in the hands of people like Motsoeneng.”
