BARNEY MTHOMBOTHI | What are Zuma and Mbeki trying to hide about apartheid-era crimes?

Former presidents Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma — an unlikely twosome — need to explain to the country why they want justice Sisi Khampepe thrown out as chair of the judicial commission of inquiry into potential political interference in the prosecution of apartheid-era crimes. What is it that they’re trying to hide?

There’s something distressingly untoward, indeed odious, about two former presidents still living large at the expense of the state — lucrative presidential pay for the rest of their lives, elaborate security details and civil servants at their beck and call — doing everything they can to frustrate genuine efforts to find justice for those who paid for our freedom with their lives.

One would have thought they’d do everything to assist the commission, or at the very least come forward to explain the unpopular decisions they had to make. Judging by their actions, they seem to be siding with perpetrators who obviously don’t want the truth to come out, and certainly not with those whose sacrifices made it possible for them to reach the highest pinnacle in the land.

Mbeki and Zuma went to the Gauteng High Court demanding that Khampepe step down as chair of the commission, citing as reasons the fact that she worked as deputy director of the National Prosecuting Authority before getting involved in the ground-breaking Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) chaired by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, which, they contended, created a perception of bias.

Zuma’s gripe with Khampepe, of course, goes much further. She delivered the Constitutional Court judgment sentencing Zuma to 15 months’ imprisonment for refusing to give evidence to the Zondo commission in 2021.

Was a secret deal struck between the ANC and apartheid leaders to simply let sleeping dogs lie?

Thankfully, the high court threw out the challenge, noting that Khampepe’s previous roles were not in conflict with the commission’s mandate. The two have now filed for leave to appeal to the Constitutional Court.

What is even harder to understand is President Cyril Ramaphosa’s attitude. When the two former presidents initially raised their objection, Ramaphosa meekly asked Khampepe to resign, and when she rightfully refused, he told the court he would abide by whatever decision it made. Ramaphosa, who appointed Khampepe to head the commission, was essentially hanging her out to dry. He was throwing her to the wolves, so to speak.

That is of course typical of Ramaphosa: he buckles easily at the slightest whiff of pressure. He essentially sided with his predecessors against his own commission. And this is not some run-of-the-mill inquiry. The families of those who died want to know why those who inflicted so much pain on them or their loved ones were never brought to book by their elected leaders. Was a secret deal struck between the ANC and apartheid leaders to simply let sleeping dogs lie? The country needs to know.

The point of the TRC, after all, was that the truth, in all its ugliness, should come out so that victims or families could find closure, forgive and move on with their lives. Part of the deal was, of course, that perpetrators who didn’t tell the truth or refused to cooperate should have the book thrown at them. That didn’t happen. The commission wants to know why. Khampepe is the right person for the job. She’s a rottweiler. The truth will out ultimately, which is what the two former presidents are worried about.

The TRC was Nelson Mandela’s idea, and his successors never bought into it, probably because, having spent years in exile, they had little appreciation for the absolute mayhem apartheid caused to people’s lives inside the country. All they seem interested in is protecting their own reputations.

Mbeki and Zuma are an odd couple. They fell out most spectacularly at the ANC Polokwane conference in 2007 when Mbeki suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of Zuma. A few months later, the ANC, now under Zuma’s thumb, recalled Mbeki as the country’s president. The ANC has yet to recover from that bloodletting.

If Mandela was the Moses of our time, Mbeki and Zuma were supposed to be the Joshua generation. But they’ve betrayed the revolution. For most of the flock, listless and still wandering in the wilderness, the promised land remains a mirage.

Now, despite Zuma’s expulsion from the ANC, the two seem to be making common cause. But it’s not the first time they have joined forces. In October 2011, Zuma appointed the ill-fated Seriti commission, clearly designed to put to bed allegations of corruption in the arms deal. Mbeki helpfully rocked up at the commission to rubbish all claims of malfeasance in the deal. The commission’s findings were later set aside by the high court, leaving judge Willie Seriti with egg all over his face.

Early in his presidency, Mandela was dragged to court by Louis Luyt and willingly cooperated despite misgivings by some of his advisers. He wanted to make a point that nobody was above the law. To his successors, it would seem a commission of inquiry is something to be wary of. They’re scared of the truth.

If Mandela was the Moses of our time, Mbeki and Zuma were supposed to be the Joshua generation. But they’ve betrayed the revolution. For most of the flock, listless and still wandering in the wilderness, the promised land remains a mirage.

The two bear most of the responsibility for leading the country astray. The tendency is to heap all the blame for corruption on Zuma’s head — state capture and all that. But Mbeki is not without blame. His cockeyed views on Aids sent hundreds of innocent lives to an early grave. His porous borders created social problems that will take years to sort out.

Although there’s no evidence that Mbeki himself was corrupt, his coterie of cronies made a mint. Smuts Ngonyama’s ageless comment that: “I didn’t struggle to be poor,” will remain the anthem of the Mbeki era.

But whatever they’re trying to hide will come out in the end. They probably haven’t heard of the Streisand effect: an attempt to suppress or censor information only causes it to attract far more publicity.