Could Zuma go to jail, like Olmert?

Geoff Sifrin

Taking Issue

This week, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert entered Maasiyahu Prison in Ramla to start a 19-month sentence for bribe-taking and obstruction of justice. And in South Africa last week, democracy was victorious as the Constitutional Court sat to determine the status of actions recommended by Public Protector Thuli Madonsela, regarding irregular state expenditure on President Jacob Zuma’s private homestead Nkandla.

Israel’s democracy is far from perfect, with concerns about the current government’s intrusion into areas of human rights, including freedom of speech. But to its great credit, its legal system has sent both a former prime minister and president – Moshe Katsav – to prison for financial or sexual criminality.

In other places, this has happened only after a revolution or coup. Even the United States pardoned former President Richard Nixon for “any crimes he might have committed against the United States while president”, rather than jail him.

Israel has had many corruption scandals. Olmert’s first finance minister, Abraham Hirchson, was jailed for embezzlement; former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was tainted with money-laundering and bribery accusations; current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has had two corruption investigations and a third is under way; former Prime Minister Ehud Barak was the subject of a money-laundering investigation; Interior Minister Arye Deri went to prison for bribe-taking; three Shas ministers were convicted; and leaders of Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu party are under suspicion of corruption.

South Africa can be proud of its Constitutional Court judges, particularly Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng, who were unrelenting in their probing questions to lawyers for Zuma, the Public Protector, the Speaker of the House of Assembly, opposition parties and corruption monitoring NGOs, thereby reasserting constitutional supremacy.

The high point was when Zuma’s counsel, advocate Jeremy Gauntlett, conceded that the public protector’s recommendations are binding on Zuma and that her report cannot be subverted by the report of the police minister which, at Zuma’s bidding, exonerated the president from having to pay back money for Nkandla improvements.

The impeccable proceedings raised the intriguing prospect of Zuma’s impeachment for violating his presidential duty to uphold the Constitution.

Corruption is a complicated thing to root out in any society. Comparing different countries is never truly objective. If many public officials are investigated and indicted, it may indicate a corrupt country or, on the contrary, that law-enforcement is operating well.

Nevertheless, some indicators can give a reasonable picture. How do South Africa and Israel rank in public sector corruption relative to other countries?

The 2015 Corruption Perceptions Index of Transparency International, shows 68 per cent of countries worldwide have serious corruption. Denmark, Finland and Sweden are the least corrupt of 168 countries. Israel ranks 32, and South Africa 61. The most corrupt countries are Somalia and North Korea.

Sending a head of state to jail is incredibly difficult to achieve, even in democracies, because of the power the position gives incumbents to manipulate politics and law, for example through appointing cronies to positions of authority.

Could Netanyahu go to jail if shown to be guilty of corruption? Could Zuma, with his long list of failed attempts to indict him trailing behind him, be forced to have his day in court on Nkandla and other charges?

Fortunately, South Africa’s judiciary still exhibits significant independence, as we saw last week. Gutsy judges hold the fort. We must fight to keep it that way.

Read Geoff Sifrin’s regular columns on his blog sifrintakingissue.wordpress.com