When a new ANC leadership spearheaded by President Jacob Zuma took power, they were quick to denounce the “autocratic” Thabo Mbeki. He was a law unto himself, they said.
He undermined Parliament and did not see himself as being accountable to it. Those words resonated with a public who had watched as MPs mollycoddled the Mbeki administration for nearly a decade.
Back then promises that “Parliament will stand up for itself” and “Parliament will not be lapdogs of the executive” were slogans for the raft of new energetic legislators. But parliamentary activism is uneven and where it begins to blossom, it faces attack.
Towards the end of last year it started to become clear that 100 parliamentary flowers would not be getting much fertiliser. Mathole Motshekga, grateful to Zuma for teleporting him from the political wilderness into the chief whip’s office, announced that ministers didn’t have to jump when Parliament called. “They have a country to run,” he told reporters at the time. “The directors general are the accounting officers. They can come.”
It was clear that all the bravery was withering away and MPs were again being reminded that they owed their seats to the bosses who drew up party lists.
Lindiwe Sisulu, the defence minister, has reminded the defence portfolio committee time and again that its wish is not her command and she will deal with the committee as she pleases. Sisulu, as the longest-serving woman Cabinet minister, knows her stuff. She has obtained legal opinion to back her up and complained to the speaker, her brother Max, about the unfair demands of the committee.
Taken one by one, her responses seem almost reasonable, but they add to a picture of defiance and disrespect for the legislature.
She also knows that politically few can put her in her place. But she suffers from the same disease as many of her colleagues, who are perhaps less vocal. They feel Parliament is a nuisance, run by politically weak ANC members who have no business asking uncomfortable questions.
The ANC will, no doubt, scramble to say this is not true. But we will believe them when we see Sisulu treating the portfolio committee with respect and giving it reports, information and feedback when it asks, because respect for the committee means respect for us — the people who elected the members.
Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe has the awkward task of mediating between Sisulu and MPs. He will have to remind her that no minister has a right to refuse to appear before a parliamentary committee because it has “not apologised to her”.
If he fails to remind her of her duties, Parliament’s Zuma spring will deepen into frosty winter and we will all lose — not least of all the ANC.
Jackboot PR
Here are some things we know, and don’t know, about Sunday Times journalist Mzilikazi wa Afrika and his bizarre arrest this week.
Wa Afrika has been writing for years about the criminalised politics of Mpumalanga, and has earned the loathing of those around premier David Mabuza, who claim he is acting on behalf of party factions that want a change of power in the province.
But it wasn’t until he took on National Police Commissioner General Bheki Cele that he really got into trouble. On Sunday his account of a dubious property deal involving police headquarters was published. Co-authored with another senior investigative journalist, Stephan Hofstatter, the piece implicated Cele in allegations of tender irregularities.
By Wednesday Cele had publically described Wa Afrika as a “very shady journalist”, and by Thursday he was in secure transit to Mpumalanga following a dramatic arrest.
It’s fair to say Wa Afrika is not a poster boy for journalistic ethics.
Indeed, he was dismissed from the Sunday Times in 2004 for inappropriate involvement in the business affairs of a subject, one of the travel agents accused in the parliamentary expenses fraud.
We don’t know if his conduct in reporting on Mpumalanga was unimpeachable or not. We do know that the only bit of evidence cited in his arrest so far is an allegedly fraudulent letter of resignation from Mabuza to President Jacob Zuma, which he had in his possession.
If possession of fraudulent documents were a crime, half the journalists in South Africa would be liable for arrest. We get them all the time — it is our job to determine their authenticity and probative value before we make them public.
If there is evidence that Wa Afrika committed a crime, he should, of course, face charges and professional disgrace. If, on the other hand, he was in touch with sources in the province who gave him information — sound or otherwise — that he rigorously followed up and authenticated, then he was simply doing his job.
Whatever the real reasons for the arrest, the way it has been executed sends a powerful, and terrifying, message about the real character of the proposed Media Appeals Tribunal, and the Protection of Information Bill.
We’re in the fight of our lives. It will be long, messy, and short on moral clarity, but that won’t stop us from fighting it with all we’ve got.