We are observers of our own sinking

IT IS one thing, and maybe forgivable, to sink unknowingly without any recourse. It is quite another to fall, knowing full well the reasons and the strategies needed to avoid the demise.

Recent events suggest we are a country that belongs to the latter category. South Africa is blessed with some of the finest institutions and brains to safeguard its democracy. We have a constitutional system that has checks and balances.

It provides warning signs and redress where there are faults.

These are wantonly ignored to the peril of the whole of society.

The rule of law and accountability is entrenched in the Republic's statute books.

But, not in our psyche, it seems.

We are good at diagnosing our problems. But we also do well at carrying on with our lives as if these problems don't exist.

When we come up with solutions - and sometimes excellent ones - we never care to implement them. They are an irritation.

In the past two weeks, three prominent South Africans, among those with very fine brains, have on separate occasions spoken out about the ills troubling our Republic.

They have done so not because they derive pleasure out of it, but out of concern about the future of the country. They also occupy positions of public trust that require of them to comment dispassionately about the state of affairs.

Their comments point to a republic in a governance crisis - the type that should jolt the president of the country to call an extraordinary cabinet meeting and to seek extraordinary remedies.

Well, if only our president really cared about such mundane things as good governance. As it has now become clear, private bunkers and the fierce protection of a certain police officer have suddenly become national priorities.

Now, about the fine brains. First, it was Terence Nombembe, the auditor-general, who painted a bleak picture about the state of governance and the management of public money.

"Things are serious, and they are even more serious than we thought they are. They are more serious because the people employed by the government to do the work are least prepared and equipped to do it. The situation is dire," he said.

Some will correctly point out that there is nothing new in Nombembe's observations. Granted. And that's precisely the point: we are observers of our own sinking.

But so terrible is the situation that the wrongs have become the rights; the bad is the norm; giggles from the highest office are supposedly a good indicator of a country well governed. Mediocrity has assumed the noble character of excellence. What a coup!

Nombembe remarked, almost powerlessly, that his reports were not taken as seriously as they should be by the government departments that he is obliged in terms of the law to audit.

"Bad [audit] results are regarded as the norm," he said. And when managers get a disclaimer - the worst audit opinion, where taxpayers' money cannot be accounted for - little happens to them to show that it is not acceptable.

The same applies to those who get a qualified audit - the second worst audit report, where the auditor-general cannot vouch for the soundness with which public money was used.

"That is the culture we need to be concerned about," Nombembe said. Nombembe's comments contained a tinge of hopelessness.

It would be a tragedy if someone like him and the institution he leads begin to lose hope. It would mean there is no hope for the people of Nala municipality in Free State, where tenderpreneurs walked away with money, leaving an unbearable toilet stench - literally and figuratively.

On another occasion, Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke raised concerns about "the tardiness of government institutions in implementing court orders promptly".

Given the position he holds, Moseneke is well positioned to know whether or not the judgments handed down by courts are implemented by the government.

A government that seeks to promote the rule of law and which expects citizens to abide by the laws of the Republic should be the first to implement court decisions. That is why Moseneke's observations are very worrying.

It would be sad if Moseneke and his colleagues on the bench were to begin to have a sense of helplessness that their judgments, especially those meant to ameliorate the condition of the poor, take time to implement.

Moseneke also said a record of judgments shows that courts have been in the forefront in championing good governance and for the upholding of the rights of the poor.

"Judgments show that courts have insisted on the rule of law and on executive transparency and accountability. They have protected and upheld freedom of expression alongside privacy and human dignity," he said.

"Lastly, it is the courts that have repeatedly warned that the scourge of public corruption and patronage will ultimately imperil the war against poverty, disease andequality."

Public Protector Thuli Madonsela also recently remarked that maladministration and corruption were responsible for many unfulfilled aspects of the South African dream that came with the dawn of democracy in 1994.

That dream, she said, is the constitutional promise of a prosperous South Africa with improved quality of life for all citizens and the freed potential of each person.

The dream should not be allowed to slip. No.