Why 2020 is not a lost year

The year 2020 is not a lost year. I refuse to see it that way. Yes, Covid-19 decimated lives and livelihoods, but I am consoled and empowered by the fact that it is the same year that the extent of the graft of our elected representatives was laid bare.

It is not a given that those exposed and implicated in the great state heist in the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture will pay for their crimes.

The fact is, we know who stole what and where. We also now know our leaders stole the country’s dream of a better life for all, and why: for a dime.

As Professor Patrick Loch Otieno Lumumba, the Kenyan Pan-African advocate, once said: “You bring a hyena to take care of goats and when the goats disappear you wonder why?”

Now we know why Elina Maseko gave birth outside the Stanza Bopape Community Health Centre in Mamelodi.

It’s because there is no empathy from the top, with discipline and dutifulness in the public service duty replaced by greed and selfishness.

Now we know why and how the R255 million for the Free State asbestos project was stolen and why SA Airways and Passenger Rail Agency of SA and other state entities were run into the ground, to the detriment of the nation.

It’s because the state has been lost to hyenas and Nelson Mandela’s dream of a better life for all has disappeared.

Our country has become a very dangerous place to live in and raise children. Nationally, 5 107 people were murdered in July, August and September this year, according to the second quarter crime statistics released by Police Minister Bheki Cele last month.

High-profile people have been taken out in broad daylight, including top cop Lieutenant-Colonel Charl Kinnear, gunned down outside his house on 18 September.

The recent spate of targeted assassinations seen across the country have rattled security experts, prompting warnings that more people, including witnesses, prosecutors and even magistrates could be taken out as the Hawks begin to swoop on those fingered in criminal activities.

Sedibeng district municipality manager Stanley Khanyile was shot dead while sitting in his Mercedes-Benz in the parking lot of Meyersdal Mall in Alberton.

He was allegedly killed just days before advocate William Mokhari was due to hand in his report on charges of misconduct against Khanyile.

He faced a string of allegations, including illegally appointing a legal firm without authorisation, purchasing a R5 million house by forging his wife’s signature and employing a director in his office who had a previous record of dismissal for fraud and corruption in the Eastern Cape.

How can we forget how Shepherd Bushiri, a Malawian Christian preacher, and his wife, Mary, evaded justice in SA on charges of fraud and money laundering?

Why he was released on bail when it had been established that his travel documents were “irregularly” issued beats logic, but we are wiser now of our keepers.

Thus, 2020 is not a lost year.

Sipho Mabena pictured at The Citizen, 16 July 2019. Picture: Tracy Lee Stark

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