Selby Vusumzi Moyo
By Selby Vusumzi Moyo
Mamelodi Activist
South Africa must be the only place on earth where politics come to a standstill to dedicate time to discussion of crime.
This because the criminal activities are closely tied to the state! In case you are shocked and wondering how this is possible, a quick review of the last month will reveal more about the past thirty years or so.
Every high level crime that has taken place in this territory has some government official benefiting.
Indeed, we can even say without contradiction that certain crimes emanate from the blessings of government officials.
Some of the activities may seem latent or benign, but are explosive once they come to the fore.
These actives are not about your theft of two loaves of bread and five fish.
They are about stealing billions from the state with the negative impact of rendering it bankrupt. Every sector of government is affected, for every government official is a potential crook.
No one from presidents who might be working through relatives or some other connections to a traffic cop who asks for a “drink”.
A home affairs official who does not hesitate to steal someone’s identity to smuggle a crooked foreigner who ends up holding a portfolio in highly sensitive departments, and getting paid by the taxpayer!
And you wonder how that person survives for years without raising alarm!
What about priests who are caught up in all sorts of scandals only to find they are associated with top government officials?
In the interim, citizens who try very hard to eke out a living cannot make ends meet, and are left without services.
The government is used effectively by officials to destroy at the expense of millions who swim in poverty.
To think if government were running smoothly with honest men and women, no one would want.
Because this territory can offer enough for everyone of us all sixty-some millions of us to live comfortably…
But the leaders of this government are making it possible for everyone to look to crime.
I mean, even the very constable who joined the police service not long ago, understands that to survive you are not going to tell on his or her superior, but learn “to live”! Or else…
Of course no one can take a chance with their lives. The struggle for self-preservation is fierce.
The recent revelations by the police a few of the good ones show that they are themselves involved in alleged killings of their colleagues and politicians and innocent civilians.
It must be unusual, if not abnormal, to have so many high ranking police arrested at a go!
And it has come to the for that some people in high places according to recent reports are or could be enablers.
If, as alleged, prosecutors and judges, are involved, we are clearly living in a lawless society.
In reality, it is impossible to have a government when legislators are caught up in criminal rings and are painted as corrupt.
How are we going to trust judges or magistrates who preside over cases of shady individuals?
How do we trust government officials who have ties with the criminal underworld, without concluding that they are criminals themselves?
How must we feel when we know that we are ones who put those criminals in power?
We must be embarrassed if we are told that we are complicit.
If we convince ourselves we are not, what stops us from removing them when political principals hesitate probably because they are also complicit?
We can no longer be surprised that cases of crime and corruption take long to deal with, or they don’t even see their day in court.
Because someone ‘powerful’ is hoarding docket and another does not sign warrants of arrest!
We are all caught up in a web of criminality that, in my view, can end when we rise up to register our displeasure.
For where law hesitates or drags its feet, it is the people for whom the law was created to decide to change it, make another that will suit their lives.
Indeed, law fails where and when legislators, law enforcers, and government are caught violating the very law they are custodians of.
It is simple, where law exists only for the sake of its name there can be no government.
And without doubt, there can be no government where officials are themselves criminals.
Otherwise, law will be seen as defending the criminals which has become the case, given how cases are shelved, or allegedly guilty others are moved from one portfolio to another and without consequences.
Or, as we have seen lately, be put on special leave with all benefits.
For law to be what it is, it must not be seen to be lenient on certain citizens and not others.
So far we are seeing how it is not applied equally according to how we were promised it would be.
It is upon the citizens to decide whether they want to continue with the status quo, or have fulfilling change.
But nothing can change if we still hope the very crooked people in government will change things for the sake of the citizens.
Citizens must gain the awareness that THEY ARE the main game changers.
Without them there is no government and there is no law… That is the sacred truth.
Vusumzi Moyo