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IT STARTED in 2007 in Polokwane, where Jacob Zuma was elected ANC president.
The ANC’s resolution that the Scorpions should move to the police laid the foundation, but it was a political decision to protect Zuma against prosecution that sounded the death knell for an independent, anti-corruption unit.
The purge of the investigative units in the South African Revenue Service (Sars) and almost every person involved in them reminded me of the Scorpions’ funeral.
There are numerous parallels in how another investigative unit is being shut down in front of our eyes by the Zuma administration.
Look for a few bad apples (of which there are examples in every policing unit in the world), present it as the norm, mix in a number of blatant lies and play the race card if you have to.
It’s becoming crystal clear to me that the actions of the new Sars boss Tom Moyane against Ivan Pillay, Peter Richer, Johann van Loggerenberg and others are part of Operation Shut Up.
Operation Shut Up is driven from the Union Buildings (or from Nkandla?) and involves the weakening and eventual disbandment of any independent investigative capacity in the state.
Zuma, who was the ANC’s intelligence chief in exile, doesn’t tolerate such counter-revolutionary behaviour and wants control over any investigation into ANC cadres that could lead to prosecution or imprisonment.
Sars, under Pillay’s leadership, filled the void left by the closure of the Scorpions by targeting drug lords, arms dealers, money launderers and alleged corrupt youth leaders.
Naturally it suited Zuma and the ANC when Sars was targeting alleged corrupt youth leaders, because they were now political opponents.
Is it pure happenstance that Zuma has suddenly taken control of Sars after Pillay and his team started asking questions about fringe tax benefits on Nkandla, customs duty on ANC-T-shirts and the tobacco industry, in which Zuma’s son Edward is involved?
I don’t think so.
Moyane was a weak prisons’ boss and was asked to leave when he reached retirement age last year.
Pillay is a trusted ally of minister Pravin Gordhan, who ruled Sars for a decade with an iron fist. Gordhan was fully aware of the existence and actions of Sars’ investigative units.
He understood that tax dodging was often the only way to break intricate, organised crime syndicates. The Al Capone principle.
As minister of finance he could keep a close watch on Sars, particularly after the departure of his successor Oupa Magashula.
But then Pillay and Co. started asking the hard questions. And Zuma removes Gordhan as finance minister. And he appoints a weakling at Sars.
And the heads start to roll. The Scorpions are dead. The police is in a mess. The Hawks’ wings have been cut. The national prosecuting authority is reeling and now the taxman is on its knees.
It all started in 2007.
*Adriaan Basson is editor of Beeld and author of Zuma Exposed (Jonathan Ball).
The column first appeared on netwerk24.com in Afrikaans.
