A highlight of journalism in 2005 was the exposure by the Mail & Guardian about the laundering of R11-million in public funds to the African National Congress’s election coffers via parastatal PetroSA and the private black economic empowerment company Imvume Management.
Still unanswered in all the coverage is who ultimately conceived the deal, and at what level of the ANC this was sanctioned. Thus, we don’t know whether Thabo Mbeki gave his go-ahead. And if he did not, oughtn’t he as ANC president to have known about this major violation of good governance? Or is it that he doesn’t run this side of the ANC?
Through other news stories, we know that the ANC chief has lost control of many elements in the ruling party, including — it seems — of those deployed as the country’s most senior spies. So, were some officials in the ANC going about “fund-raising” without reference to their leader?
Setting aside the ANC shenanigans for a second, one would have hoped that at least in his capacity as state President, Mbeki would have taken the lead in rooting out at least those responsible in PetroSA. He has not.
And, far from congratulating the M&G for its sterling public service, he has sat silent while the public protector disgracefully dodged the issue. And he continued tightlipped when both Imvume and the police brought extreme pressure on the paper to reveal its sources of information. In short, the country’s president has given de facto approval for whitewash and intimidation.
The clear signal being sent out is that ANC officials are free to use state resources to advantage their political party unfairly. From this, it’s a short slide into greasing palms of favoured business associates — notwithstanding Mbeki’s condemnation of corruption.
Thanks be to investigative journalism that South Africa’s crony capitalist tendencies are not able to burgeon in the shadows. At least part of the Oilgate scandal is now in the public limelight.
Journalism that unearths abuses of power is synonymous with Watergate, but South Africa has its own proud legacy. It dates back to digging by Ruth First and Henry Nxumalo in the 1950s, Benjamin Pogrund in the 1970s and Jacques Paauw in the 1980s.
A new book out last month now assesses the more recent record and draws out lessons in handbook style for today’s journalists. Written by Derek Forbes and published by the Konrad Adenaeuer Foundation, A Watchdog’s Guide to Investigative Reporting is available online at www.kasmedia.org.
Forbes states that while all reporting should ideally be investigative in one way or another, there is a definitive body of work that can be singled out as fully-fledged “investigative journalism”.
One example he gives is the Sunday Times‘s 2001 exposÃ