The broken covenant: The impact of empowering the Auditor-General on state governance

I DELIVERED a keynote address to the 5th SAIGA conference held at the Emperors Palace and asked the question, “Whither governance when Moses has broken the tablets at the foothills of Mount Sinai?”.

- Dr Pali Lehohla

When we stood before the nations in 1994, newly liberated but materially poor, we did not anticipate that the riches of the state would eventually afflict us, paralysing our human agency.

That agency was once epitomised by the poor who triumphed over a labyrinth of apartheid laws and prisons. Yet today, we face a tragic inversion: the liberators have become the predators.

Hani, Mandela, Biko, Sobukwe, Maxeke, Sisulu, and Tambo cannot sleep in peace, despite our songs wishing them eternal rest. They cannot rest because the "Covenant of Truth"—the tablet of governance—has been broken.

We have mutated into what the Indlulamithi Scenarios define as a "Gwara-Gwara" nation, further devolving into a "Vulture Culture." In this culture, proceeds of crime lubricate political favour, and leadership becomes an uncontested association in crime. We are dancing and singing while development is dololo.

But the cost of this Vulture Culture is not just economic; it is measured in blood. Lawrence Moepi, Babita Deokaran, Cloete Murray, and Mpho Mafole—the shield of the nation—paid the ultimate price. Their blood has watered the proceeds of crime, martyring its way into the sealed envelopes of political contestation and now into the Government of National Unity.

The Moral Hazard of the PAAA

In response to this crisis, South Africa made a profound, structural mistake. We attempted to solve a political crisis with an auditing tool. My central contention is this: You cannot fix a paralyzed state by arming the accountant.