On Friday last week I logged on to Twitter and was surprised to find that Glenn Agliotti (@GlennAgliotti) is now tweeting.
His account is rather active for a man with so many legal problems. At the time he had just tweeted: “Justice delayed is justice denied. Going to enjoy a glass of wine.”
This was after the court had postponed Friday’s proceedings because of the civil servants’ strike. I thought that was a bit cheeky for someone on trial on serious charges.
I didn’t think about it again until Monday afternoon, when I saw the following tweet by @KatyKatopodis: “Just spotted Charles Nqakula littering. He threw a piece of paper (chocolate wrapper, I think) out of his shiny black Jaguar. How NOT to Lead SA!”
These two seemingly unrelated incidents are indicative of a bigger issue within our country — that of our lack of respect for the law, which is finally catching up with us.
It hasn’t even been 60 days since the “whirled cup” ended and it already seems like a distant mirage in the of the many issues that are collectively chipping away at South Africa’s gees.
We began this week with the Bees Roux case, which, as it unravels, is proving that it’s not so crystal clear which of the two parties was actually breaking the law.
Then there’s former police chief Robert McBride, who is still fighting a drunken driving charge from two years ago, and the case of a taxi driver whose allegedly illegal and negligent driving led to the death of 10 children — this while we are still dealing with a strike that has resulted in unnecessary deaths and jeopardised futures.
Early on Monday morning I saw school children walking away from their schools, as if this country can afford that with the matric pass rates what they are. But I was consoled by the fact that not all these children really need tertiary education.
Some of them could decide to go into politics or work at the SABC or even become president — one doesn’t need a degree to run the country.
It’s strange how it’s illegal to drive a car without a licence but it’s perfectly acceptable for a leader without a diploma or a degree to be steering a vehicle carrying more than 45-million people.
I’m not blaming Jacob Zuma for the current socioeconomic quagmire because the problems existed before him but, as the saying goes, “a leader leads by example, whether he intends to or not”. If ours has had to dodge a bevy of legal bullets to get to where he is, how can we expect a society that respects basic laws? Yes, no court found him guilty, but his reputation still suffered as a result of his many legal battles.
Disrespect for the law starts with small things — jumping red robots, littering and driving drunk. Our politicians don’t seem to understand that the small actions that they sometimes get away with become much bigger problems by the time they have trickled down to the masses.