Insight

Allegations of corruption, fraud, bribery, abuse of public office and political power, betrayal of public trust, misuse and outright theft of taxpayers' money and, of course, cover-ups. Armsgate, Zumagate, Travelgate, Oilgate...

The South African media have been awash in recent times with a succession of lurid tales involving those purporting to be in service of the high ideals of the new nation and its expectant citizens.

Adding a poignant edge to local scandals about abuses of political position and power comes the revival of interest in the original "gate" saga - Watergate - thanks to a decision by "Deep Throat" to put up his hand up after three decades of self-imposed silence.

Amidst this sordid stew of intrigue, we have the curiously timed announcement that parliament plans to project itself as the new moral beacon of the nation. And President Thabo Mbeki uses the debate on his budget vote in that very institution to issue a ringing warning that corruption and abuse of power will not be tolerated.

This warning is immediately greeted by sceptics with a warning of their own: the ruling party does not have an unblemished track record of walking the talk on prickly matters of this nature, especially when the party or its big wigs are implicated.

Critics complain that ANC members accused or found guilty of wrongdoing or corruption are often shielded by the party, redeployed to other cushy jobs, rewarded with additional responsibilities or even promoted once - and even before - the dust has settled.

Is this fair? How can disputes on these sorts of issues be adjudicated?

Well, leaving aside for the moment the latest drama surrounding businessman Schabir Shaik and his apparently wholly owned and controlled subsidiary, an examination of the response of ANC high-ups to the Travelgate and Oilgate sagas might be instructive.

These are useful examples because both revolve around the appropriate course of action to be followed when confronted with the actual or claimed theft of taxpayers' money - by a political party, its elected public representatives, senior party officials or government figures.

The Travelgate scandal has been dragging on for years and if the current rate of ducking, diving and buck-passing continues, it could be years yet before legal finality is reached on scores of MPs implicated in abusing taxpayers' money in travel voucher scams.

A number of current and former MPs have already pleaded guilty and been convicted for fraud. But the ANC has on a number of occasions given the crooks in its ranks the comforting assurance that nothing will be done to discipline them until all the criminal trials involving errant MPs have been finalised.

So, even those convicted in a court of law for effectively stealing money from their constituents and taxpayers in general continue to "serve" the public they have cheated.

The very people who have been ripped off and whose trust has been betrayed must continue to foot the bill so that the comfortable lifestyles of self-confessed cheats can be maintained.

The ANC has more recently stated that those guilty of defrauding parliament will have to vacate the leather benches of the institution. But it has not specified when this will be happen and for how much longer the fraudsters in their midst will be allowed to live a taxpayer-sponsored good life.

Some of these convicted crooks have been rewarded, unblushingly, with new responsibilities since their true colours have been exposed, while others have been lined up for promotion posts.

The ruling party's response to the Oilgate story has been equally revealing. After the story appeared that R11 million of taxpayers' money that parastatal PetroSA paid to oil supplier Imvume Manage-ment ended up in ANC election coffers, ANC spokesman Smuts Ngonyama said the ruling party would not necessarily have refused the money had it known that it had been paid to Imvume irregularly.

And in parliament, the ANC chairman of the minerals and energy committee, Nathi Mthethwa, breezily dismissed calls for an urgent probe into the alleged fraud and theft of taxpayers' money on the grounds that the request from the official opposition was devious and not sufficiently genuine or authentic.

Based on this logic, the committees in parliament would no longer be able to fulfil one of their primary watchdog functions - to ensure that taxpayers' money is wisely spent in an accountable manner by bodies obliged by the constitution to answer to parliament.

But if the ANC, in fact, is "the parliament of the people" (as ruling party ministers and their policy chief Jeff Radebe are fond of repeating), then it follows that expenditure of taxpayers' money must necessarily be an internal party matter.

With acknowledgements to Anthony Johnson and the Cape Times.