JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — For nearly three years, South
African investigators have been unearthing a web of corruption around the
former president, Jacob Zuma, in a public inquiry that has captivated the country.
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There were bribes paid in luxury cars and a cash-stuffed Louis
Vuitton bag. High-ranking officials distributed lucrative government contracts
in exchange for monthly handouts. That era of graft drained tens of billions of
dollars from state coffers and has become one of the most infamous chapters of
South Africa’s post-apartheid history.
Now, the country’s highest court will determine whether Zuma can
be held accountable for contempt of court, and for an era of consequence-free
corruption, in a hearing that represents one of the greatest tests for South
Africa’s democratic institutions in recent years.
“This is an absolutely critical moment: The principle that all
people will be equal before the law is being challenged and the constitutional
system itself is being challenged,” said William Gumede, chairman of the
Democracy Works Foundation, a South African nonprofit group. “Essentially, the
former president is saying he is above the law of the country, he is above the
constitution, he is untouchable.”
The hearing before the Constitutional Court on Thursday comes a
month after Zuma defied a court order to appear before corruption
investigators, a move that challenged the legitimacy of South Africa’s legal
system and prompted the chief investigator to seek a two-year prison sentence
for Zuma for contempt of court.
The Constitutional Court is unlikely to impose such a harsh
sentence when the verdict is announced in the coming weeks. Doing so could
trigger mass protests by supporters of Zuma and destabilize the country as it
reels from the worst coronavirus outbreak on the continent, an economy battered
by the pandemic and record-high unemployment.
Nonetheless, the hearing itself is seen as an important moment
for South Africa, which has been plagued with corruption over the past decade,
with few officials held accountable.
The case has also underscored the challenges facing the African
National Congress (ANC), the party of Nelson Mandela that has governed the country
since the end of apartheid in 1994. During Zuma’s nine-year tenure, the party
became consumed by corruption scandals that tarnished its image and sparked
public outrage over mismanagement.
After Zuma was ousted from the presidency in 2018, the ANC
became increasingly polarized between loyalists of the former president and
supporters of his successor, Cyril Ramaphosa, who vowed to crack down on
corruption and restore the public’s confidence.
Fierce resistance to Ramaphosa’s efforts from within the ANC
have cast serious doubts over his ability to deliver on that promise.
But the high court hearing Thursday may be the beginning of a
turning point, analysts say. Not only does Zuma face a possible prison sentence
from the outcome, but he will also stand trial in May for allegations that he
took bribes from arms dealers in the 1990s.
“For 15 years or more, Jacob Zuma has been using the strength of
the South African court system to put off his day in court” by appealing cases
against him, said Richard Calland, a constitutional law professor at the
University of Cape Town. “But he is now running out of legal runway. This is
the moment where he finally meets his Waterloo legally.”
Zuma has denied all allegations from both cases. In recent
months, he has also accused the corruption inquiry’s leader, Deputy Chief
Justice Raymond Zondo, of harboring a personal vendetta against him and
attacked the investigation itself.
Established in 2018, the investigation is known as the
Commission on State Capture, a term that has become a buzzword in South Africa
and refers to corruption at such a high level that private groups effectively
purchased the power to divert state resources into their own hands.
The commission has interviewed more than 250 witnesses in
televised hearings that have become a telenovela of sorts about the country’s
deep-seated corruption. It is expected to end in June and deliver a report to
South African officials that could include suggestions for prosecution.
Taken together, the testimonies paint a damning portrait of
post-apartheid South Africa where relationships between former freedom fighters
in business and government transformed into criminal enterprises and elites
manipulated efforts designed to shift economic power from the country’s white
minority to Black South Africans to line their own pockets.
At least 40 witnesses have directly implicated Zuma in
arrangements to plunder tens of millions of dollars from state companies. In
total, an estimated $33 billion was siphoned from state coffers during his
tenure, which ended in 2018 amid public outrage over graft and bitter
infighting within the governing party.
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