Mogoeng’s voice will forever remain influential: Analyst

Political analyst, Professor Sam Koma, says former Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng will forever remain one of the influential voices on matters involving corruption.

The former Chief Justice used his address at the SAfm Inaugural Lecture 2023 to criticise the media for turning a blind eye to holding the private sector accountable.

He has slammed the targeting of government officials when looking into allegations of corruption.

“The focus in this country when we talk about corruption is on government officials, what is happening in the private sector? Why is it that we hardly ever have a story running from January to December about corruption in the private sector.”

He says that as long as the focus is on government officials and not the private sector, then the corruption that’s ravaging the country is far from over.

“It is in the private sector where we are being told to address pay disparities when people are earning hundreds of millions of rands and their employees are earning close to nothing.”

Koma has commended Mogoeng for his consistency in calling out the media for allegedly overlooking corruption in the private sector.

The former officer of the court also used his address to take a swipe at President Cyril Ramaphosa’s controversial CR17 campaign.

He says the President had a duty to disclose his funders, who ultimately contributed to his victory to become the president of the ANC.

Mogoeng claims that Ramaphosa frustrated the office of the public protector in its probe of the CR17 matter.

“He demands more than once that the Public Protector should explain to him how and from whom she obtained these admittedly truthful but reputationally damaging emails, not once does he explain why he and his team chose not to tell the truth but to rather mislead the Public Protector as he did.

“Instead, he says that the emails are in any event irrelevant to the Public Protector’s findings but that cannot be correct for not only are the emails relevant but they also expose the falsehood of the version that the President and the CR17 campaign managers chose to present to the Public Protector.”

Dismissing insinuations by some that Mogoeng is on a campaign trail, Koma says the former Chief Justice is still advancing the position he took when the CR17 matter was adjudicated by the Constitutional Court in 2021.

“He penned a minority judgment which concluded that Ramaphosa, the then deputy president of the country, was duty bound to disclose these donations.

“He correctly asked in this judgment, why would anybody not want to know who is helping them.”

Mogoeng on electricity crisis

The former Chief Justice says the country’s future, economy and credibility depend on the functionality and efficiency of Eskom.

He says it seems there is no willingness to fix the problems at the power utility.

“Why does it look like we are failing or unwilling to resolve the all-important Eskom issue, after all, it has been many years since those who were corrupt and destroying Eskom have been relieved of their duty, this is not a new problem.”