White men in black hats teach black men in white hats

White South Africans might scoff and fume but President Jacob Zuma is absolutely right. It’s the fault of apartheid.

No, not every social ill – from poverty to child rape – that the president lays at the ancien regime‘s door. After all, with a moderately honest and diligent government these could be overcome, albeit gradually.

Rather let’s blame apartheid for the mindset that the ‘new’ South Africa has inherited from the ‘old’. For this is more dangerous than anything, since it insidiously poisons and paralyses. And at its nub lies an arrogant disdain on the part of the rulers towards the ruled, which is corroding our democracy from within.

Not only does the African National Congress government, like the old National Party, believe that it has a divine right to rule. It has also taken to applying to its citizens the same mushroom manoeuvre – keep in the dark, feed shit – that was perfected by those white men in their charcteristic black homburg hats.

The National Key Points Act (NKPA), a nasty 1980s apartheid relic that encapsulated Nat arrogance and is still on the books, is a case in point. This made it a criminal offence to report about any ‘premises, building, installation, industrial complex, soil or water surface’ that had been designated a National Key Point (NKP). Cannily, there would be no actual list of designated NKPs for journalists to consult, to avoid transgressing.

The NKPA, like the Protection of State Information Bill (PSIB) that awaits Zuma’s signature, is almost certainly unconstitutional. The effect of both, however beguilingly they are draped in the robes of state security, is to prevent the exposure of ANC scandals.

If the PSIB had been enacted, the Nkandla scandal over taxpayer funds spent on Zuma’s rural home, would never have the seen light of day. Nor would Guptagate, the commandeering of an air base for the convenience of Zuma’s pals’ wedding guests.

But failing a secrecy law to prevent Nkandlagate, at least the NKP can be used to put a lid on the scandal. Because it has since been revealed that Nkandla is a NKP, the report into what happened does not have to be debated in open Parliament. Instead it will be kept from public view through referral to a closed intelligence portfolio committee meeting.

This is yet another manifestation of the ANC’s evisceration of Parliament’s oversight role. Zuma has proved adroit at avoiding appearances in the Assembly to engage with MPs. Snap debates likely to prove embarrassing have been disallowed, or set down for some distant future date by which time they can have no practical value. Ministers routinely ignore questions tabled by opposition MPs.

Although South Africa is far from the moment where a latter-day Dr Frederik Van Zyl Slabbert will resign as leader of the opposition because of Parliament’s ‘irrelevance’, it is true that as in 1986, it is the extra-parliamentary terrain that has become politically critical. In the 70s and 80s this was the site of struggle to achieve democracy; now this is the site of struggle for the maintenance of democracy.

While Parliament – but sadly not most parliamentarians – still has an important role, it is a galvanised citizenry that is proving most effective in protecting existing rights and using the Constitution to expand the democratic arena. Civic organisations like Section 27 and the Right2Know campaign have made crucial interventions in education and media issues at a time when opposition efforts in Parliament are being shrugged off by government.

This week Right2Know embarked on a cheeky act of civil disobedience. It is crowd-sourcing on its website its own list of NKPs. Since government won’t release a list because to do so, it argues, would be to alert our enemies to the importance of these sites, it will be interesting to see whether Right2Know will face any kind of police action. Probably not, since to do so would be to dump the matter in the laps of an as yet untamed judiciary.

As former Congress of South African Trade Unions secretary-general Jay Naidoo wrote this week in a Daily Maverick column, ‘to resist the incursions of the securocrat … we need to stand up and be active citizens’. Hit that Right2Know website and make your contribution…