We can’t let CR escape accountability because we fear Mabuza

The expert panel report compiled by a team led by retired chief justice Sandile Ngcobo has pushed our country to the brink, heightened our anxieties about life without Cyril Ramaphosa at the helm, and questioned our commitment to principles.

The panel’s conclusion that Ramaphosa has a case to answer has needlessly caused consternation. It boggles the mind because, first, anyone with the sort of cash bandied about — even the $580,000 (about R10m) admitted to by Ramaphosa, stashed in couches for over a month — has cause to explain the origins, transport and purpose of the cash. You don’t need a judge to tell you that much.

Anyone who has $580,000 stolen from them and has no case number 48 hours later is prima facie engaged in dodgy activities. Worse, if you know the people who stole millions from you, who get cornered with help from Namibian police, but you are not comfortable with them being arrested and instead pay them to keep quiet, you’re prima facie crooked. It’s not that deep.

Further, anyone who has friends who buy livestock worth millions from them and then disappear for the next two years without making arrangements for the delivery or collection of the stock (which could be mating and multiplying) has hit the jackpot.

So, if we are serious, the expert panel was never going to arrive at a conclusion that Ramaphosa has no case to answer. To say there is a prima facie case to answer does not mean the case has already been proved. It is to say there is a basis for an investigation. It is a basis that must worry all of us. It is a basis that is damning of the leader of our country. It is a basis that prima facie shows he has dishonoured the mandate he was given to lead with integrity.

Let’s quickly dispense with the technical minutiae of this report so we remain focused on what matters. Was the expert panel process perfect? By all means, it wasn’t designed to be. No cross-examinations, no public inquiry, no investigative capability to establish the veracity of the claims received. To boot, the panel members had only 30 days to finish their desktop report. So the panel had to rely on common cause facts such as the amount of cash, the source of the cash, and so on.

Even here, the image of the president emerging from this is of one who violated the law. One who is not deserving of that seat at the Union Buildings. At the very least, one who should be subjected to an impeachment inquiry with subpoena powers to get to the nuts and bolts of his alleged violation of the law.

That Ramaphosa got himself to this position is terribly sad. It’s not just that our corruption buster is busted, it is a betrayal of so many. When he goes down, he takes with him the dreams of a nation that hung its hope on his “new dawn”. After surviving the horror movie that was Jacob Zuma’s tenure, the nation must now accept that Ramaphosa is just a different shade of the same horror. It must be embarrassing for him. Soul-crushing, even. Yet, here we are.

The release of this perfectly expected report has heightened anxieties for many, especially as it happens a mere 14 days ahead of the ANC elective conference at which Ramaphosa was sure to be elected. Those whose careers are joined to Ramaphosa’s — and there are many

— feel more agitated. His demise is inextricably linked to theirs. So his decision to step down becomes not just his.

“We will fight for you, Mr President,” they must be telling him. Yet, they fight for themselves. It’s called enlightened self-interest.

Other ordinary people are frightened by the idea of a South Africa without Ramaphosa at the helm.

They imagine David Mabuza, our deputy president, gleefully rubbing his hands in the hope he will become the country’s acting president, and their heads run amok. What kind of South Africa would that be? Poisonings. Accidents. Life is, all of a sudden, a scary movie. This is why Mabuza trended on socials this week.

The truth is we are in this mess not simply because Ramaphosa got himself entangled in things he ought to have known how to stay away from. He ought to have known that in the ANC he leads, daggers were drawn against him the day he raised his hand to lead.

When he was elected, his secretary-general, Ace Magashule, told some that it was just a matter of five years and Ramaphosa would be gone. So he had a duty to not create conditions that made it easy for his rivals to commission a report such as Ngcobo’s. He ought to have known better. But we are here now. And our crisis is made all the worse because the alternatives are scarier.

In the end, though, our country should not be asked to put up with a fellow who clearly has a case to answer simply because we are afraid or repelled by Mabuza and the others. This moment in our history requires us not to lazily choose convenience over principle. Or balk at the alternative (Mabuza) because choosing principle gifts us our nightmare.

The plain, cold truth is that Ramaphosa has a case to answer and he should be made to face the impeachment committee. This may help us to know what on earth happened at Phala Phala. If Ramaphosa does not wish to do this, he should resign. You can’t prima facie violate the law and still insist you have a right to keep the rest of the country in the dark.

It’s impeachment or the highway. The president laid this bed. He must now lie on it. Our country deserves no less. Let us not be hypocrites by assisting him to escape accountability because we are fearful of Mabuza.

The release of this perfectly expected report has heightened anxieties for many