“The ANC is the parliament of the people” says a proud member in a Letter to the Editor, and the problem is that the ANC thinks so too. It really cannot get its head around the facts that it is not Parliament, there is difference between party and state, and the revolution continues only ignobly in the form of bickering between the differently leaning legs of a rickety stool.

Important issues hastily and clumsily addressed include not only the manipulated release on parole of “businessman” Schabir Shaik’, but the evasions, denials and lying which distinguish it, and the Presidential pardon that will surely follow. All this constitutes a government holding in contempt the people it is supposed to serve.

The “Mail&Guardian” has done the hard yards, obtained and exposed key medical records, which deserve wider readership: “There can no longer be any fudging, obfuscation or room for doubt: Shabir Shaik was not in the final stages of a terminal illness” – the grounds for his parole. The board and the politicians who have consistently blocked a review of the decision can no longer credibly claim otherwise, the paper says.

One of the documents presented was a confused and barely coherent account of his condition by a clearly underqualified prison doctor (just read it). Given government’s consistent evasions and the President’s own bizarre assertion that he wasn’t aware of Shaik’s pardon application, the M&G concludes, “Shaik can have his privacy back when the rest of us get justice back”.

The Shaik story has its roots in the Rmulti-billion Arms Deal early in the ANC’s reign,
setting the pattern of corruption that has dogged it since. In 2005 he was found guilty of fraud and a corrupt relationship with Zuma, then Mbeki’s deputy in parliament and party.
He began serving a sentence of 15 years in 2006 but was paroled on those medical grounds after two years.

Zuma meanwhile had exited high office and was facing charges connected to his relationship with Shaik. The charges were withdrawn after the Polekwane meeting of the party and before the elections. A new Head of Public Prosecutions was appointed, and the defence produced tape-recorded evidence of political collusion to obtain Zuma’s conviction. Details of the evidence and how it was obtained have not been revealed. Parhaps Shaik’s brother Mo’s appointment as head of SA Security Services is relevant.

The persistent rumours of an imminent Presidential Pardon for Shaik have almost been digested by a tolerant public. The pardon now also being rumoured for “Prime Evil” Eugene de Kock would be the stuff of nightmares. A lowly “foot soldier of apartheid” he might have been, but also a killer and a torturer. Again, a government that would see this as providing some sort of balance in a difficult situation, is one that holds the people in contempt.

Intra-party factions have formed within the ANC over key issues such as the country’s parastatals, all of which are hopelessly run, financially big-time losers and endemically corrupt, but possessively treasured by those at the trough (it’s only tax payers’ money). Dollar signs have largely obscured ideological differences. New Public Enterprises Minister Barbara Hogan did not get off to a warm welcome when she heretically announced that those enterprises which couldn’t pay their way should be sold.

She went on to tough it out and see off the CEOs at Eskom, Transnet and Armscor, but has failed to find long-term successors and is now under mounting pressure. Siphiwe Nyanda, who brought our defence force to its knees and should fit in well at the SABC as Communications Minister, has been very grumpy about losing a large security contract with Transnet.

Hogan has some strong support, notably and surprisingly including senior leftist ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe, the mineworkers union and cabinet financial leaders
Trevor Manuel and Pravin Gordhan. Mantashe, on the other hand, admits to a 25% stake by the ANC in Hitachi Power, recently and quietly awarded a huge contract by Eskom, which stuffed it all up in the first place. He cannot see what is wrong with that. Good luck, Ms Hogan.

This column started with mention of the Mail & Guardian and its excellent investigative report on Schabir Shaik. It ends with the amateurish ETV news item on criminals not being frightened off by the assurances of soccer bosses that World Cup security will be impregnable. A couple of down-and-outs, partly obscured to indicate investigative reporting, smoking clouds of something and promising to misbehave regardless. One of them (fact) committed suicide the next day.

That gets ETV News the Media Cup for total incompetence and irresponsibility. Perhaps it should be collected by those brave academics and NGOs who immediately spoke up in its defence.