Amnesty vs. Accountability

It starts...

Our media is about to debate the next chapter in the farce that is the arms deal. One which could definitely - in the eyes of the rest of the world - destroy South Africa's already waning reputation and culminate in ours becoming the next African country to collapse into a helpless meltdown.

We as 'Proudly South African' optimists will defend our beautiful land to the bitter end, armed with the oft-sung slogans of a rainbow nation and continued notions of rectifying the 'Legacies of Apartheid'.

Personally, I am tired of this fight, as the reality that we now face seems to me to be equally evil. I will no longer blindly support our country with the same fervour that a religious zealot uses to justify his inability to question (or even acknowledge) any notion that differs from his own.

Have we lost the inclination to question our leaders, owing to their disadvantaged pasts, when it is the very actions they undertook in their recent past which causes their reputations to be questioned?

Before I lose it completely, I am referring to this article posted on News24 today, in which the potential for amnesty for those involved in the Arms deal is being considered. I must be completely honest when I say that this terrifies me. It is, to our justice system, what Marijuana is to drug addiction: The first step in a perilous downward spiral.

Why is it that when parliamentarians commit fraud (Travelgate) they are not prosecuted criminally, but simply removed from office? Even those prosecuted and found guilty simply serve a ridiculously abbreviated sentence in relative luxury and then saunter home even more respected for their apparent suffering. The punishment does not fit the crime.

Were a starving man to rob a convenience store to feed his family, would he not feel the full wrath of the law? Am I wrong in feeling a massive sense of imbalance? Is this not the country's "Neo-Apartheid": The discrimination of New South Africans (irrespective of colour) by those who are now abusing the fact that their pasts were disadvantaged?

Unrepentant forgiveness in South Africa is the rape of the country by those to whom it has been entrusted and it simply must be stopped. Giving amnesty to those involved in the arms deal is a tacit ratification of their actions, and it sets the most dangerous precedent possible - that any action, no matter how illegal, can be tolerated if argued long enough. That no man is accountable for his actions if, in his past, he has struggled for 'the People'.

The saddest irony is that those who suffer most at the hands of corrupt oppressors are the same people that are easiest to influence.

Can we afford to sacrifice accountability at the altar of amnesty?