Justice may grind slowly, but it does grind finely

President Cyril Ramaphosa’s weekly letter to the nation was slightly delayed yesterday … he clearly wanted to be sure that the good news was spreading before he commented on it.

That good news was the arrest of former Transnet chief executive Brian Molefe and the parastatal’s former chief financial officer, Anoj Singh. They join another six accused, including another former Transnet CEO, Siyabonga Gama, on charges of corruption and fraud involving payments of R93 million to the Gupta-linked Regiments Capital firm.

In addition, the Hawks bust the director-general in the KwaZulu-Natal premier’s office, Nonhlanhla Mkhize, and a co-accused on allegations of defeating the ends of justice and intimidation, as part of the Hawks’ operation looking into malfeasance at the bulk water utility Mhlathuze Water in KZN.

ALSO READ: Brian Molefe, Anoj Singh, two others granted bail of R50 000 each

An upbeat Ramaphosa, who has frequently been accused of being missing in action when it comes to running the country, revealed that in the past financial year, the Asset Forfeiture Unit froze R5.4 billion of assets relating to corruption offences, with R70 million paid into the Criminal Assets Recovery Fund.

Over the past eight years, the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) has recovered funds and assets to the value of R2.6 billion and set aside contracts to the value of R18 billion.

A total of 119 cases worth more than R13 billion have been enrolled by the SIU at the Special Tribunal. Can we finally see some light at the end of the state capture tunnel, where people will start going to prison in orange uniforms?

That is still a long way off and, judging by the Stalingrad defence of Jacob Zuma, court proceedings are certain to be drawn out. But at least things are moving now and the net is closing on some of the culprits.

Let’s hope there are more arrests in the offing. Justice may grind slowly, but it does grind finely.