Writer: Mbhazima Shilowa | Photographs: Supplied

Ndzo hlaya ku pima:

Hambi (havi) yo famba enkoveni, lundza ri ta vonaka.

Khukhuna luombeni thunda nnda i do vhonala.

Senzo Mchunu must go… and Ramaphosa should be the one to make him go

While politicians in most democracies resign at the first whiff of a scandal, South African leaders — from Zuma to the current Mchunu affair — cling to power despite mounting evidence of corruption, causing irreparable damage to both their party and the country’s institutions, writes Mbhazima Shilowa.

In most democracies, politicians resign at the whiff of a scandal. A few wait to be pushed, while others only leave once the stench is unbearable.

In our part of the world, politicians often cling to power despite mounting evidence. You could swear their lives depend on the public positions they hold. By the time they resign or are shown the door, it is too late. The damage to their careers — or whatever little reputation they had — lies in tatters, identical to that of their political party.
In certain instances, it is the party that is slow to act — more so in situations such as South Africa’s, where leadership and cabinet posts are about balancing factional interests.

I used to laugh while listening to some ANC leaders tying themselves in knots trying to explain why they could not act against former president Jacob Zuma in the wake of the Nkandla and Gupta brothers scandals. By the time they took action, it was too late. The damage to the party had been done.

Only now, after Zuma formed the MK Party and caused massive damage to the ANC’s election majority, do party leaders concede that the “fire pool” was indeed a swimming pool.

When Cyril Ramaphosa was contemplating calling it a day in the wake of the findings of the report by a panel of experts led by retired Chief Justice Sandile Ngcobo — following allegations of millions of dollars of cash stuffed into a couch at his Phala Phala game farm in 2020 — it was the president’s close associates who leaned on him to stay put.

Despite open rebellion by a few senior ANC MPs, Ramaphosa’s circle of friends and key officials in the party managed to whip the ANC parliamentary caucus into line to vote against accepting the report, leaving his fate in the hands of the ANC’s 55th National Conference.

Notwithstanding mutterings from some of the leaders and delegates opposed to his candidacy — notably Zuma, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, and Lindiwe Sisulu — Ramaphosa retained his position as president of the ANC with a healthy majority.

None of the factions were motivated by the need for ethical leadership with integrity and revolutionary morality. Neither was it about the interests of the party and country. It was for their factional interests, cloaked as a reform agenda and a radical social and economic transformation of society, respectively.
Again, the damage was done, as can be seen from the results of the 2024 general elections, where the ANC only received 40% of the votes. Many stayed at home; they couldn’t be bothered.

In 2018, former minister of finance Nhlanhla Nene resigned his position due to his failure to disclose meetings with the Gupta family to Ramaphosa and the party. He had not been accused by anyone, at least publicly, of any impropriety in his dealings with them. He decided to take the high moral road and fell on his sword.
One would have thought he had raised the bar higher, but alas, his comrades brought it back down to the floor as soon as his resignation took effect.

Fast forward to Senzo Mchunu. In July, Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, the KwaZulu-Natal SAPS commissioner, levelled damning evidence against him, alleging that he was in the pocket of criminal syndicates.
Mkhwanazi pointed to Mchunu’s decision to unilaterally disband the political killings task team — set up by Ramaphosa in 2018 — without consultation, as evidence of him doing the bidding of known criminals, some of whom are under arrest.

One would have expected him to fall on his sword, even as he protested his innocence. Like Zuma, he could have demanded his day in court instead of in the court of public opinion. Or the president could have fired him, in the same way that former president Thabo Mbeki fired his then deputy, Jacob Zuma. At the time, Zuma had not been charged with any crime. Only Schabir Shaik had been convicted — for, among other crimes, bribing Zuma.
The glimpse of a new dawn from Nene’s resignation was but a fleeting moment. The party and its leadership have reverted to default settings.

In a twist of irony, Mchunu staying put and the president choosing to set up a commission instead of firing him and establishing a prosecution-led police task team to probe, arrest, and bring all culprits before the courts, opened a Pandora’s box. He should have known that: “Hambi (havi) yo famba enkoveni, lundza ri ta vonaka,” as Vatsonga would say. (Even if a bull hides inside a drainage, the hump will be visible.)

It is not too late for Mchunu to pack his bags and go, or for the president to give him the boot.
I know that one cannot determine the result of a cricket match simply by how the first team batted. But, based on the evidence at the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry and his performance at the parliamentary ad hoc committee, the odds are heavily stacked against Mchunu.

Neither is it too late for the ANC to ask him to resign from his seat in Parliament and for the president to fire him.
While they fiddle as the country burns, we should be glued to our television screens or radio stations for what seems to be a riveting soap opera. It would be entertaining if it were not so serious.

But as they say in the classics, even in grief there is occasional laughter.

*Mbhazima Shilowa is the former premier of Gauteng and former general secretary of Cosatu.