The heading is not an error.  It should, one would hope, read “government tackles corruption”, but at the moment in South Africa it appears that the government is tackling corruption fighters.  The latest drama obviously relates to the Hawks and the various court cases and hearings involving Anwa Dramat.  It is surprising to read that he is being prosecuted now for alleged actions of illegally returning certain Zimbabweans to Zimbabwe some years ago, even when an internal police report has already cleared him of that.  It is hard not to suspect that it has something to do with the fact that he made the mistake of calling for the Nkandla files and I think everybody in those departments needs to understand that calling for these files is not a good idea!  

It is never a bad idea to do your job properly, but it seems that there are certain tasks that if you look into them, or even call for the files, it can end your career in any crime-fighting force fairly quickly in South Africa.  Interestingly enough, the Minister said that this is all about race – and if the people who were returned to Zimbabwe had been white, that the headlines would have been about human rights, but because they were black Zimbabweans, the media was focusing on Dramat’s suspension as opposed to the illegal rendition of the Zimbabweans.  He went on to say, and bear in mind that a court has already found his suspension of Dramat to be illegal, “This is a sad reality we must fight and defeat, for our immediate aim as a country remains this creation in practice, of a truly just and democratic society, that is able to sweep away the old legacy of colonial conquests and white domination.”  Somewhat surprisingly, this is the same government that fought very hard not to let us have the report on the Zimbabwean elections.  At the same time the head of the Special Investigating Unit, Advocate Soni, who previously conducted an investigation into President Jacob Zuma’s Nkandla home, resigned to spend time with his ill wife.  He said that working in the job “has been stressful and it is a serious challenge …” but that his resignation had nothing to do with things happening in other state departments.  In the meantime, President Zuma is attempting to suspend the head of the NPA, Mxolisi Nxasana, and the head of Anti-Corruption and Security at SARS, Clifford Collings, was demoted and the agency’s Chief Operation Officer resigned.  It seems like crime fighting agencies are missing a lot of the leadership right now and that’s certainly not good for the country, but it may be assisting some individuals.