The Kerzner/Holomisa imbroglio gives ground for concern about the thin fabric of our still-fragile society. The issue of corruption, while troubling, is not the most worrying factor. It is rather the effect a succession of these sorts of rows is having on the character of the ruling party.
South Africa has much to be grateful for where the ANC is concerned — liberation, for a start. And it is no detraction from that debt of gratitude to observe that our government is not greatly experienced and deserves time to come to terms with the huge problems it has inherited.
Unfortunately — as is often the case where those new to power are concerned — the ANC has shown itself to be highly sensitive to criticism, which it resents with a bitterness that smacks of vanity. When the flak flies, it retreats into the laager so familiar to the past: taking refuge behind the covered wagons of party “unity”, firing denials and angry denunciations at the circling press. In the course of these heated battles, it is in danger of forgeting the journey on which it embarked.
It needs be said to the ANC that it still enjoys huge reserves of goodwill in the country. Much can be expected by it in terms of public understanding and forgiveness. If a donation of R2-million by Sol Kerzner was accepted for party funds, the ANC could expect criticism, but of a kind that counts as experience. If, as Holomisa has suggested, Thabo Mbeki and Nelson Mandela did canvass the possibility of “doing something about” the case pending against Kerzner, we would gulp, but put it down to the extraordinary times we found ourselves in during the build-up to the 1994 elections and the ANC’s transformation from a liberation organisation to a political party.
The ANC is not engaged in a life-or-death struggle in the political arena. Its majority in Parliament and the country is secure. Its task, at this juncture of South African history, is to put the nation on the path of good government. Central to good government is the cause of openness and transparency. When it begins gagging its members with ministerial sackings, “disciplinary” inquiries, threats of legal action and other exercises in the art of cover-up, the ANC betrays itself and sets precedents which are hugely destructive of the country’s future. And for that there should be no forgiveness.