Zuma amnesty a breakdown of law and order? Are we still in transition?

When Mail & Guardian editor Ferial Haffajee speaks, I listen. This gutsy lady has a proven track record on the hard but fair approach to journalism with an in-built radar that steers her towards doing the right thing at the right time.

When she went on SABC television just before Polokwane, her assessment of President Mbeki was on the money and caught the mood of the country, as it turned out.

Therefore I think long and hard before I differ with this lady on anything.

Before I start, may I just say that over Vince Maher’s dead body will I be tarred and feathered for this article. I figured that seeing as he wasn’t doing anything with it anyway … but I digress.

In Ferial’s article entitled “History will not absolve us“, she submits that:

“Democrats cannot allow the expedience of an amnesty. It is not a cure-all or a cop-out, but a legal weapon to be used judiciously in support of transition (the Truth and Reconciliation Commission) or transparency (the small-business tax amnesty).

The prosecutions of Zuma and Selebi must go ahead. If any more dirt comes out of the arms deal, then those involved must be prosecuted; otherwise we will destroy the rule of law.”

When I submitted an amnesty for Zuma, Selebi and Nel, I was taken to task by many of you for abandoning principle and dropping standards.

In fairness, I have to concede those points.

What I am asking is whether this country can afford the backlash of the Zuma trial at this point in our development — and, in line therewith, are we not really still very much in a state of transition?

Fourteen years on, I agree with Ferial in that blaming apartheid or third forces no longer cuts it. You have to assess where we are in our development at present:

The bulk of our population still grew up during apartheid.

While sophisticated and First World applies in part, the bulk of our country is still very much Third World. Decision-making in strategic areas is still letting us down.

The economy, which is coping well, considering, is about to come under severe pressure from without and within.

The majority of the ruling party (our country?) voted for Jacob Zuma, who is perceived to be the champion of the poor. Whether that is true is a matter for debate and will find a home in a later article.

That majority has seen the TRC and other amnesties, including even now watching Ferdie Barnard apply for amnesty. It has also seen many other parties cited for crimes and left untouched.

In light thereof, I humbly submit that we are still very much in transition and I choose the path expedient.

I want to forego the terrible growing pains that this trial will visit upon us.

I believe that if Zuma and the new guard are as misguided as some would have us believe, then let them feel the same rejection that Thabo Mbeki felt at Polokwane.

Draw a line in the sand and assure politicians that this is the last amnesty, but make it so.

It is not without precedent — far from it. We have seen murderers walk free, on political grounds, time and again; this supposedly in the interest of nation building and without suggestion that our criminal justice system would collapse.

At least this time such an amnesty would achieve certainty, albeit sub-standard, poiltically, economically and legally.