President Cyril Ramaphosa receives the final volume of the state capture report from chief justice Raymond Zondo at the Union Buildings in Pretoria, on June 22 2022. Picture: ALET PRETORIUS/GALLO IMAGES
The light of accountability and democracy is dying in many parts of the world. Leaders are tearing up the rule books. Russia continues to bombard Ukraine. The UK this week indicated it could walk away from key EU human rights agreements. Corruption runs rampant in many jurisdictions. Predictably, the whingeing and whining about Zondo has come from those implicated in the commission’s final report. They have been exposed as thieves and now seek to avoid accountability by discrediting the report and its authors.
The Truth & Reconciliation Commission had many deficiencies. Yet thanks to the reports, testimonies and documents that the TRC collated and left behind for us, much of the truth of what happened under apartheid was laid bare. Even with the millions of documents destroyed by apartheid agents on the eve of democracy in 1994, we still know enough to know that a crime against humanity was committed here.
Even if it does, the truth is out. We know about the industrial-scale thievery at state-owned enterprises, in government departments and at the spy agencies .Zuma was pressured by his loss of power in December 2017 to appoint the commission and for Zondo to head it. The commission has savaged him. He must face the music.