The erosion of values in SA politics

The Nkandla scandal, like the Arms Deal before it, has revealed the underbelly of modern South African politics. At a time when trust in politicians seemed at an all-time low, it has eroded further.

“Government teaches by its conduct, not by words. So who should take seriously all the talk about combating crime and zero tolerance for corruption by government?”

Public Protector Thuli Madonsela in her Nkandla Report said that President Jacob Zuma and his family “improperly benefited from the measures taken, buildings and other items constructed and installed at the president’s private residence”. She said the president had failed to discharge his responsibilities as “the ultimate guardian of the resources of the people of South Africa”, and that this failure to act in protection of state resources constitutes a violation of paragraph 2 of the Executive Ethics Code.

Ms Madonsela prefaced her report on Nkandla with a quote from Louis Brandeis, a justice of the US Supreme Court from 1916-39: “Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches people by example… If the government becomes a law breaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man [person] to become a law unto himself…”

Does the ruling party and its president understand that politics is a credibility game, and that if theirs is not a moral vocation, it is nothing?

When there is a crisis of credibility in the first office, then the whole structure of our democracy comes tumbling down like a house of cards.

Government teaches by its conduct, not by words. So who should take seriously all the talk about combating crime and zero tolerance for corruption by government?

The president has already made it clear that he is not going to respect Ms Madonsela’s recommendation that he repay “a reasonable percentage” of the total cost spent on “non-security” comforts” during the almost R250 million upgrade. This has provoked even more disgust among the public—and the Catholic Church’s bishops.

Time and time again, President Zuma has demanded respect from the South African public, while in the same breath blatantly not respecting us.

No post-1994 president has contributed towards the devaluation and emptying of virtue in our politics as Mr Zuma has. Starting with his vice-presidency, he has been dogged by scandal after scandal. I should not be surprised if he felt himself invincible. And those who have supported him along the way are complicit in this decline of our political values and the reversal of the gains of our freedom.

It is the decline in political values which has given rise to the politics of anger and disillusionment, as demonstrated by the founding of Julius Malema’s Economic Freedom Fighters.

It is not that South Africa is any worse than other modern democracies in political scandal and corruption. It is the lack of accountability that creates so much despair and public disgust in South Africa’s politics.

Of course the ruling party knows that it is still immune from a challenge at the polls. This brings us to the failure to conscientise our majority.

The commentating class is far removed from people on the ground. This might be the reason behind the “No Vote Campaign” that has been led by former government minister Ronnie Kasrils. It encourages those who are angry at the government to use the power of their vote against it, or to spoil their votes.

It is the Catholic Church that now provides a clear indication and good example of how behaviour at the top trickles down to others. When Scottish Bishop John Keenan was appointed to head the diocese of Paisley in February, he chose not to move into the opulent bishop’s residency, but instead, in an echo of Pope Francis, lodges with a parish priest in the presbytery in a housing scheme in a poor area.

Would politicians follow that example?

Mphuthumi Ntabeni is the leading election candidate of the United Democratic Movement in the Western Cape. He is writing in a private capacity as a Southern Cross columnist.