Can Simelane regain public trust amid VBS controversy?

It is truly commendable that Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development Thembisile Simelane honoured her appointment with parliament’s justice committee. And the parties that grilled her about her VBS-linked loan did acknowledge that.

Truth be told though, this is akin to praising a fish for swimming.

This is what parliament is meant to do – hold Cabinet ministers accountable. It got so bad in the past 15 years that the country got used to parliament protecting the executive and the president, instead of holding them accountable.

It was quite sad to watch one of the ANC’s star performers try to wiggle out of the VBS quicksand. The more she tried to explain how her loan was above board, the more unconvincing she sounded.

It is important that public officials who have been caught receiving tainted money be dealt with so the fight against corruption at all levels of government is given the necessary boost.

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It has become common knowledge that corruption at lower levels of government exists and citizens must just accept it.

There are cases of collusion between investigating officers and court prosecutors accepting payments from criminals to ensure that their cases never see the light of day.

Corruption like this has become endemic because the reasoning of the corrupt cops and court prosecutors is that those in charge of them politically have been caught with their hands in the cookie jar far too many times and it is rare for them to be prosecuted.

So, unfortunately for Simelane, her case must be used as an example in the bigger fight against corruption.

That she expressed sympathy with the people of Venda where VBS originated doesn’t take away from the fact that those people have not received justice for the way their monies were distributed to people who earned enough to be involved in shenanigans like this.

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That justice must be administered by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) which reports to the department that she oversees.

Even though she has reassured parliament and the country that she would never interfere with how the NPA administers justice, those reassurances sound hollow. It’s not because she is lying, but because the fact that she has to make those reassurances means there is a problem.

Parliament was faced with an issue of a moral kind recently involving the appointment of uMkhonto weSizwe’s John Hlophe to be part of the Judicial Services Commission.

Hlophe was impeached by parliament and can no longer work as a judge, but no-one thought of the absurd possibility that someone who was impeached as judge could take part in the parliamentary committee that appoints judges.

This is the kind of moral dilemma that Simelane faces.

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Quis custodiet ipsos custodes – who will guard the guardians themselves? Perhaps Simelane doesn’t quite grasp that she is among the guardians of the country’s legal system.

And as such, she should not be in a position that compromises her ability to be an honest and truthful guardian.

Apart from the fact that monies have to be accounted for, as she tried to do before the committee, the minister must reassure the public she serves that she will not put herself or the president who appointed her in the kind of moral quandary that her past actions have put them.

And, sadly, there can never be enough reassurances for her to earn back that trust again.

But because the president does not always act speedily, she might stay around for a while.

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