We don't need the death penalty to fight crime and corruption
EDITOR'S NOTE
Amidst rampant crime and corruption in South Africa, this article argues that the existing laws, such as the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act, are sufficient to combat these issues without resorting to the death penalty. Why are we not utilising the tools we already have?
Image: RON AI/Independent Media
While criminals are “living a free life”, driving around in supercars like the Lamborghini Urus, South Africa’s leadership and the criminal justice system are sleeping on the job with a Rolls-Royce set of robust corruption prevention and combating laws.
Among these great laws is the “key statute” – as Corruption Watch terms it – the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act (PRECCA), which not only criminalises the kind of corrupt activities we have been hearing too much of in the past few days, but imposes reporting obligations on those who become aware of such. And we are also armed with the Protected Disclosures Act, which is designed to protect whistleblowers, and the FICAs, FATFs, etc.
I’m not a legal expert, but I can go on and on, listing our fine regiment of laws, finance and banking regulatory organs, investigative bodies and so on and so forth. But we all know that, as Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi put it during the Tembisa Hospital interim report briefing on Monday, it’s the criminals who are “living free” while some of our good fellow South Africans are suffering or living in fear and hiding from the mafiosos now running our great country.
The Difficulty
But I beg to differ with the honourable minister on the question of China and the death penalty. We have a strong arsenal of laws and crime and corruption fighting bodies. We just need to ensure they are put to good use.
In plain English, PRECCA says don’t look away or keep quiet when you become aware of a suspicious changing of hands of R100 000 or more, or some other corruption or theft. But people – including those in positions of power and influence – tend to keep quiet, to mind their own business. Many, of course, join in or actively participate in covering up the dirty deals.
But I understand the minister's difficulty. What can one do when one's own boss is a PRECCA delinquent and your Cabinet colleagues feature in commissions of enquiry?
We don’t need the death penalty, or anything we don’t already have. We just need to use the arsenal we have to prevent our country's decline into a full mafia state.