Ruthless reckoning for racketeers: High-profile corruption cases signal hope for South African
More chickens are coming home to roost. And again it is reinforcing the lesson to those with corruption ambitions, that crime doesn’t pay.
The reckoning should be celebrated with even greater excitement when it comes to those suspected of looting the public purse.
Last week we had two such stories to make a song and dance about.
The one was the highest court in the land ruling against the former head of the SABC Hlaudi Motsoeneng.
The Constitutional Court ruling was the last avenue for him in his attempt to hang on to the R11.5 million commission he was paid by the public broadcaster.
It was his “success fee” for brokering a deal with MultiChoice for the SABC’s archive.
The second story was the beginning of even more sweet justice.
After losing his extradition defence in the UK, Interpol delivered a certain Mr Michael Lomas back onto South African soil to face justice.
Despite being a frail, wheelchair-bound 77-year-old, Lomas will now be forced to face trial alongside four others, accused of defrauding Eskom of close to R800 million.
Lomas was an Eskom contractor at the time of the crimes, which involved the construction of parts of the Kusile Power Station, and which ended up costing the power utility close to R1.5 billion.
Lomas, who has been a fugitive from justice since 2017, landed at Joburg’s OR Tambo International Airport on Friday, with his police escorts in tow.
Despite his age, there’s very little sympathy, considering that he and his co-accused were probably the biggest contributors to why our load shedding hell persisted for as long as it did.
Let’s just be clear. These are people accused of stealing our taxes.
Money that we are forced by law to pay to government on a regular basis.
Money that is meant to make our lives better in some way. Money that they felt entitled to.
So this development is a big win for the South African public and hopefully sends a clear message to others considering doing the same things.
In his legal argument, Lomas’ lawyer told the UK court that he is a high suicide risk if he is extradited back to South Africa.
It is such a bold and desperate attempt at escaping justice.
I’m glad the judge saw it for what it was.
Trying to convince a court that the suspect will take his own life if he is forced to face justice is a level of attempted manipulation that one doesn’t often encounter.
Both stories are truly wonderful examples of the fastidious work quietly being done by our crime investigators, in Lomas’ case - detectives at the Hawks and the NPA’s Investigative Directorate.
Successes like these are important to counter the negative publicity that they often receive.
It also returns some of the faith that we used to have in these institutions.
I have said it before and it bears repeating.
When there’s corruption at the top of our leadership structures, it gives others at the bottom permission to do the same.
Like children who do what they are exposed to at home every day, people follow the examples that are being set by those in charge.
So this scourge of corruption needs to be rooted out from the very top. And feeling abroad to escape justice shouldn’t prevent us from pursuing it.
Now I wonder how that extradition request for the Guptas are going?
dailyvoice@inl.co.za