The disgraced former president and party leader is behind bars, humiliatingly escorted to prison by heavily armed police officers. His successor was profoundly apologetic: “The governing party could and should have done more to prevent corruption under my predecessor.”
Of course, this wasn’t Robert Abela referring to Joseph Muscat. This was about Jacob Zuma, former South Africa president and anti-apartheid liberation hero. Until 2018, he commanded supreme control as leader of the mighty African National Congress (ANC) and president of the rainbow nation. Today, he is a broken man.
Like Muscat, Zuma sold himself as the people’s leader and promised transparency and meritocracy. Like Muscat he was forced from office when it all ended badly.
Zuma’s term was an exercise in rampant state looting. Zuma, his general secretary, their families and allies enriched themselves. Zuma engineered state capture by the Gupta brothers, three billionaire businessmen, and other wealthy families. $3.5 billion of state assets disappeared into the pockets of Zuma’s friends and family. State institutions were dismantled, guaranteeing impunity for Zuma’s accomplices.
Zuma was personally embroiled in multiple corruption cases. He accepted thousands in bribes from an arms company for protection from investigation. He used $18 million of public money for opulent renovations at his Nkandla property. He handpicked third-rate unqualified political hacks for positions they were not suited for, to the ruination of the state.
Ace Magashule, Zuma’s ally and ANC general secretary, was directly involved in theft, fraud, corruption and money laundering. Both Zuma’s and Magashule’s sons were employed by the Gupta brothers and enjoyed lavish trips at the Guptas’ expense. Cabinet posts were assigned not by the president but by the Guptas. Massive state tenders were awarded to reward the Guptas and other powerful families.
KPMG was paid $1.6 million to produce a report, falsely incriminating the finance minister, whom Zuma wanted removed, and senior members of the revenue services who had been uncovering corruption.
The Guptas laid a lavish wedding party for their niece at Sun City that cost over $2 million. KPMG, Guptas’ auditors, attended the wedding and thanked the Guptas. Wedding guests landed in a private plane at the Waterkloof high security military base. Zuma was invited too. The wedding, it transpired, was funded by taxpayers’ money funnelled from a dairy farm, through Dubai and back to South Africa.
Zuma’s biggest scandal revolved around Eskom – the country’s electricity provider. Eskom contracted American company McKinsey to provide ‘consultancy services’. In six months, $112 million were channelled to McKinsey and its South African partners from one power station. When Suzanne Daniels, chief legal advisor at Eskom, raised the alarm, the contract was terminated. Daniels’ life was threatened. Had the contract run its term, $800 million of state funds would have been drained.
Zuma’s South Africa is eerily reminiscent of Muscat’s Malta. The state capture by Yorgen Fenech mirrors the Guptas’. His proximity to Muscat, Keith Schembri, Edward Zammit Lewis, Rosianne Cutajar, Joseph Cuschieri, Michael Farrugia, Marvin Gaerty and Johann Buttigieg are identical to the Guptas’. So was his control of the police through links to the deputy commissioner.
Like the Guptas, he handed out bags of cash to governing party MPs. Deals awarded to Zammit Tabona, Apap Bologna, Gasan, Silvio Debono and Joseph Portelli mirror South Africa’s. Muscat’s direct involvement in the Café Premier scandal and other corrupt deals such as the Vitals and SVPR contracts are identical to Zuma’s.
Labour’s Malta will never investigate state corruption- Kevin Cassar
Bribes for high-ranking politicians, funnelled through two or more intermediary companies before being transferred to offshore companies, are replicas of Schembri’s and Konrad Mizzi’s Panama financial structures. The payment of Azerbaijani millions into 17 Black reinforces those suspicions.
The Guptas’ lavish wedding evokes that of Pilatus’ Ali Sadr Hasheminejad in Florence, which Muscat, Fenech and Schembri attended together.
The millions allegedly drained from national electricity providers out of taxpayers’ funds into the pockets of high-ranking politicians and wealthy businessmen at Eskom and Enemalta are a carbon copy.
Sadly, for Malta, that is where similarities end. Zuma’s party had the courage to oust its own leader and president.
In Malta, Labour defends and glorifies Muscat.
The ANC found Zuma’s intimacy with the Guptas revolting. Labour found Muscat’s intimacy with Fenech commendable.
When Zuma resigned, his party didn’t elect his anointed successor, his ex-wife, but chose Cyril Ramaphosa, who pledged to stamp out corruption. Labour selected Muscat’s chosen one, the continuity candidate. The candidate hinting at stamping out corruption was stamped out himself.
The ANC set up an Integrity Commission to expose its sins and learn its lesson. It expelled its general secretary. Abela’s Labour continues to conceal Zammit Lewis’s Cutajar’s, James Piscopo’s, Buttigieg’s, Carmelo Abela’s and Muscat’s misdeeds.
South Africa set up the Zondo Commission, an inquiry into state capture, corruption and fraud. Hundreds, including politicians and political appointees, gave honest testimony.
In Malta, a procession of cowards defiantly concealed the truth before the Caruana Galizia inquiry.
Labour’s Malta will never investigate state corruption.
KPMG was forced to pay back the money for its false report. McKinsey’s assets have been frozen. South Africa is recouping its stolen money. Malta never will.
Zuma launched a blistering attack on the commission and refused to appear. Found guilty of contempt, he was condemned to 15 months’ jail. He faces 16 counts of corruption, racketeering, fraud and money laundering and accepting 783 illegal payments. Muscat insolently abuses the Caruana Galizias and the inquiry board. He accepted Fenech’s lavish gifts and Michelle’s charity drained tens of thousands more.
While Ramaphosa roundly denounces his predecessor, Abela hugs Muscat on stage and extols his virtues.
Zuma is behind bars. Muscat audaciously insults and provokes, reassured that his successor and party will never lift a finger to bring justice to the country and the party he betrayed.
Zuma’s imprisonment is a triumph for the rule of law.
Muscat’s defiance is its undoing.