State capture and enablers have forced an urgent moral foundation rebuild

There are many disturbing aspects to the first instalment of the Zondo Commission’s report into state capture … disturbing because, if they are not tackled with vigour, then our country’s downward trajectory will only accelerate in the years ahead.

At its most basic, the motivation for the looting of those years – and, if we’re honest, in previous scandals, like the arms deal – was obscene greed.

We say obscene because the amounts taken – even by those lower down the plunder food chain – were way more than any human being would need to live in luxury for the rest of their natural life.

Many of those involved were part of, or associated with, the ANC – which is an organisation predicated on building a society where there is “a better life for all”.

The money stolen could have made many millions of lives better, through the provision of water, electricity, housing, education, health and other basic services.

Not to put too fine a point on it: People have died who may have lived, had those resources been channelled to where they should have been.

That leads to the next disturbing aspect of the Zondo Commission revelations: That venality was widespread in the government departments and state-owned enterprises infected by the state capture virus.

There were scores, if not hundreds, of “enablers” in those organisations who either were part of the thieving or who looked the other way when they witnessed it.

Make no mistake, this was not just the Guptas and Jacob Zuma, albeit they lit the match to the consuming inferno.

A disturbing observation about those enablers is that many of them were professional people, such as accountants and auditors and accredited lawyers.

These are not merely employees.

By virtue of the professional oaths they take on being formally admitted to their professions, they should hold themselves to a much higher ethical standard than “ordinary” people.

Our legal and accounting professions must start doing some serious soul-searching.

Similar soul-searching should be done by those other money-grabbing enablers at the London PR firm Bell Pottinger and those who aided and abetted them and amplified their poisonous messages.

The tale of White Monopoly Capital and Radical Economic Transformation has led to noticeable damage to race relations in this country through successfully diverting any criticism of Zuma and the Guptas into allegations of white racism.

The impact of these different parts of what Zuma, the Guptas and their accomplices did has set this country back 20 years, in terms of both economic growth and societal stability.

Rebuilding from that will not be easy.

All of these disparate facets of state capture will still be with us, and will have to be dealt with, no matter whether or not prosecutions or civil legal action against individuals or companies follow in the wake of Zondo’s reports.

Even if the kingpins (and queenpins) are fitted out for orange prison uniforms, there will be no closure for our society unless we tackle our shortcomings which led to this national catastrophe.

Why are we so greedy? Why is enough for a comfortable life not enough any longer? Why can we not care for the less fortunate? Why are so many of us dishonest?

We need to rebuild our whole moral foundation.