Let’s not get too excited about this so-called corruption clean-up

Goody gumdrops, the sharks are closing in on Ace and JZ!

All must be right with the world and South Africa is on the road to moral recovery! The Rand is strengthening, vaccines are being rolled out and even Carl Niehaus has faded, perhaps not all too gracefully, from public attention.

Shucks, even Gigaba is facing a tough set of questions. This clean up must really be serious! Well, sure. But also, not really.

As tempting as it is to accept what we can get, it’s not quite the sustainable path forward. Many would resign themselves to believing that a rose by any other name still smells as sweet, but when it comes to politics, there are roses and then there are roses.

Sure, the attacks on corruption for now seem very lekker, but if you scratch at the surface and ponder why we’re excited about them, you may come to a surprising revelation. Nailing the jackasses who looted the state is always a great feeling of vengeance but we know it won’t undo most damage.

So is the excitement really justified? Perhaps that’s a question for another day, but what is apparent is that the excitement is there. It’s so real that the old strategy of bussing in rent-a-crowds is hardly an effective tactic any longer.

But if we know the damage isn’t exactly going to be undone and the excitement is still there, then what exactly is the excitement for? I’d admit to having a sense of vengeance, but I view it in the same way that a victim’s sibling may feel at the conviction of a murderer; great but I’d still rather be in the position I was before the murder.

Aha! That’s probably it. Excitement that we’ll be living in a clean state after this bunch get a good drubbing from the judicial system.

Now, I’ve previously written about how I don’t really care what the reasons behind this bunch getting drubbed are as long as they get drubbed! Today, I’m sticking to that because I would love seeing Ace hanging out on the other side of the bars of Mangaung Max, regardless of the reasons. Probably the same way that Americans breathed a sigh of relief when Al Capone was slapped with 11 years for tax evasion.

What this doesn’t mean is that I believe in this clean up as a sincere attempt to fix the corruption issue.

Y’know how you can make a dog do tricks by offering them little slivers of your unwanted fat as you feast on the steaks at the dinner table? For years we’ve been that dog.

We got excited when Zuma was going to be convicted for rape (remember that and how he became president instead?). Hell, we’ve even accepted the gall of a consultancy putting out survey results showing the youth being anxious about the future in South Africa, after that consultancy was embroiled in a multimillion-rand Eskom scandal.

Why? Because we just tend to accept the results that satisfy us and not results that provide a solution to the problem.

It’s easy to accept an answer and go on with our busy lives. It’s not so easy to question those answers intently but that is exactly what we need to do if ridding the country of corruption is our goal.

Questions like, why is this taking place now? Why are the people who are facing charges the only ones facing charges?

More importantly, and we dare not get this wrong, those facing charges will use those same questions to try to wangle their way out of answering to the accusations against them. Those questions are not their weapons but rather ours.

I’m happy this is taking place now! Would I have liked it to take place earlier? Of course! Similarly, I would love for more people in leadership to be questioned about corruption but that doesn’t mean I’m not happy about the ones who currently are.

So yes, it’s a step in a direction and I like the step! Whether I like the direction remains to be seen. Once this batch of accused is dealt with, we should be ready…and willing…to deal with the next batch!

Indeed a rose by any other name still smells as sweet but that’s hardly satisfying to somebody looking to smell lavender.