President Cyril Ramaphosa. Picture: Gallo Images/Frennie Shivambu President Cyril Ramaphosa’s response to the Madlanga commission’s interim report spotlights that when it comes to criminality, he differs from Jacob Zuma only in scale but not in essence. Zuma turned Stalingrad – a battle fought between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union – into a contemporary political byword, epitomising lawfare as siege.
The approach is grinding and eye-wateringly expensive. Defend, contest, delay. The goal is not an innocent verdict.
It erodes the attacker’s capacity, in this case, of the state, to win. But Ramaphosa has his own military genius. This is the “elastic defence”, layered fallback positions, trading ground for time and absorbing shock, rather than meeting it head-on.
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Politically, it relies on procedural redoubts – investigations, disciplinary processes, inter-agency referrals, commissions, boards of inquiry – stacked one behind another until the enemy thrust loses momentum. Ramaphosa’s goal, like Zuma’s, is not victory. It is to erode the capacity of an exhausted nation to care.
This is exactly the strategy that Ramaphosa is following with Thursday’s response to the commission’s interim report. The president said based on prima facie evidence, there will be an “immediate criminal investigation” into five members of the police and the Hawks, four members of the Ekurhuleni municipal police and five civilian employees of that municipality. Conducted by a special investigative task force, it will look into allegations of criminality, corruption, fraud, murder and perjury.
It will take “urgent decisions” on prosecution, as well as make recommendations on the employment status and recommended suspension of individuals. Nobody has been allowed to view the report’s findings.
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