Paul Hoffman: Ramaphosa vows anti-corruption renewal, then puts Dina Pule back in cabinet

An analysis of South Africa’s coalition politics and corruption debate focuses on the controversial rehabilitation of Dina Pule, a former minister previously investigated for misappropriating public funds. The article argues that her return to government alongside DA-nominated ministers signals continued ANC tolerance of ethical lapses under President Cyril Ramaphosa. It links this to broader concerns about stalled anti-corruption reforms, weak prosecutions, and unresolved state capture legacies highlighted by the Zondo Commission. Referencing the Glenister judgments, it criticises the absence of an independent anti-corruption body and urges legislative action. The piece questions whether Ramaphosa can deliver meaningful institutional renewal before 2029..By Paul Hoffman*.Dina Pule was in the Zuma cabinet, but lost her position in politics over scandals around abuse of public funds on foreign travel with her boyfriend, and the acquisition of a pair of wildly expensive, red-soled Christian Louboutin designer shoes.Misappropriation of public funds for a conference in Cape Town was investigated by the parliamentary ethics committee before Pule was fired. Ben Turok, ethics committee chair, when asked why Pule was not in jail, explained that the ANC had decided that she had “suffered enough”, so the criminal justice administration was not engaged in following up against her!It is rich that Pule should be appointed, along with a clutch of worthy DA appointees nominated for cabinet by new DA leader Geordin Hill-Lewis, during June 2026.The initial response by President Ramaphosa to the request was reported as “ministers are appointees of the president… only the president can appoint ministers, finish and klaar.” This reaction put the future of the coalition between the DA and ANC in jeopardy, so it is not surprising that Ramaphosa relented, abandoned his “finish and klaar” stance and appointed each and every one of the DA’s worthy nominees, adding in Dinah Pule despite her chequered track record.If anyone is still looking for evidence that the ANC is soft on corruption, the puzzling decision to rehabilitate Pule tends to confirm that all the promises of reform on the anti-corruption front are not going to be met any time soon. Will Ramaphosa ever learn that the failure to perform on his promises is directly proportional to the fall in ANC support on his watch?Daily Maverick’s new editorial acquisition, “lowly newspaperman” and staunch Orlando Pirates supporter Mondli Makhanya, has penned a thoughtful piece comparing the political fortunes of Sir Keir Starmer and President Cyril Ramaphosa: Many lessons for Cyril Ramaphosa in Keir Starmer’s ignominious defeat.Of course, there are many differences between the brief and messy premiership of Starmer and the long period at the top, as either deputy president or president, that Ramaphosa has endured or enjoyed. However, any failure to keep political promises has consequences.Collective cabinet responsibilityThe constitutional doctrine of collective cabinet responsibility makes Ramaphosa co-responsible for the excesses of state capture in the Zuma era, when Ramaphosa, as deputy president, served as chair of the national cadre deployment committee of the ANC. He has been in the hot seat since 2018 as the third two-term president of SA. During the Zondo Commission hearings, Ramaphosa accurately described his ANC as “Accused Number One”, and Zondo duly fingered about a hundred ANC bigwigs for criminal investigation. Some of them still languish in the national cabinet.It is still an open question as to whether Ramaphosa will see out his second term or, like Mbeki and Zuma before him, be shown the door after the ANC elective conference next year. The prospects of impeachment and a successful vote of no confidence in him are also factors in the mix for Ramaphosa. Starmer did not have to contend with these, prior to his ignominious resignation after less than two years in office.The nub of the criticism raised by Makhanya comes from this passage in his editorial:‘Cyril Ramaphosa addressed the nation and said that he wanted “to make it clear” that he would not resign because to do so would be “to abdicate the responsibility that I assumed when I became the president of the republic”. To resign now “would be to give in to those who seek to reverse the renewal of our society, the rebuilding of our institutions and the prosecution of corruption”.’The underwhelming attempts by Ramaphosa at renewal of society, rebuilding of public institutions and, above all, the prosecution of the corrupt are all matters of public record. Yet he persists, at this late stage, in setting them up as his national goals, just as he did when the CR17 campaign triumphed over the Zuma candidate at Nasrec, (after DD Mabuza and some of his Mpumalanga delegates swopped allegiance at the last minute, to the chagrin of the Zuma faction).Instead of renewal, we have stagnation, especially on the all-important economic front. Educational, medical/public hospital and municipal institutions remain dysfunctional or in ruins, while prosecuting the corrupt leaves much to be desired in the wake of the findings of the Zondo Commission. Puny efforts have seen one former senior ANC politician jailed (Vincent Smith), and another facing a stuttering “off again, on again” prosecution (Zizi Kodwa). The rest, nearly one hundred of them, sail on in the calm waters of impunity, some even retaining cabinet positions.Necessary prosecutionsRenewal, rebuilding and the necessary prosecutions of the corrupt as envisaged are all worthy goals. Their achievement has proved elusive as the country stumbles from inquiry to inquiry, consultative body to consultative body, task team to task team, all without achieving any discernible forward progress on the correctly identified core issues.The issue of dealing effectively with the corrupt in our midst is the most significant and urgent unaddressed issue of the yet-to-be-resolved issues raised by Ramaphosa at the beginning of his first term as president, back in 2018.Whether he lasts until the ANC elective conference in 2027 or all the way to the end of his second term in 2029, there is still time for Ramaphosa to redeem himself and salvage some honour from his two terms at the helm of the nation. Here’s how.On renewal, Ramaphosa could do a lot worse than paying proper and close attention to the proposals made by the SA Institute of Race Relations on the economic, educational and healthcare fronts.On rebuilding institutions of state, the damage wrought by indiscriminate cadre deployment can be reversed by abandoning that toxic practice, one which even extended to the cheeky practice of “recommending” ANC favourites for judicial appointments, as Ramaphosa himself revealed to the Zondo commission during his evidence in that forum. It remains to be seen whether the worthy efforts of the Public Service Commission to clean house on the cadre deployment front will bear fruit.It is on the anti-corruption front that there is low-hanging fruit that is ripe and ready to be plucked. There will be more, after the Madlanga Commission reports finally on or, more likely after, 31 August 2026.The president needs to look at the binding nature of the decisions of our apex court in the Glenister litigation, acknowledge that his government is bound to implement those findings, and set about implementing them properly.The key findings to consider are these:In Glenister Two the court regarded the matter of dealing with corruption effectively to be a human rights issue, in that any state must respect, protect, promote and fulfil the human rights set out in the Bill of Rights. These rights can only be achieved via a clean administration, not one in which state capture and tenderpreneurs flourish. The court also pointed to the international treaty obligations of SA, which require the establishment of an independent anti-corruption machinery of state.Take-home messageThe take-home message in Glenister Two [para 200] is that “our law demands a body outside executive control to deal effectively with corruption.”No such body is yet in existence in SA.In Glenister Three the court observed that:“Corruption is rife in this country and stringent measures are required to contain this malady before it graduates into something terminal. We are in one accord that South Africa needs an agency dedicated to the containment and eventual eradication of the scourge of corruption. We also agree that the entity must enjoy adequate structural and operational independence to deliver effectively and efficiently on its core mandate.”The inadequacies in the structural and operational independence of the anti-corruption machinery of state are vividly and repeatedly in evidence in the various commissions of inquiry that have done their work in recent years. Implementation of their recommendations has been both patchy and incomplete. Failed and stalled prosecutions of the corrupt litter the legal landscape in SA. Former Chief Justice Raymond Zondo has warned that: “The levels of corruption in our country have reached completely unacceptable proportions, and unless something very drastic and effective is done soon, we will have no country worth calling our home.” Help is at hand.Adv Glynnis Breytenbach, Chief Whip of the DA, introduced two bills in parliament in November 2024. They address the thorny issues around countering the corrupt in a constitutionally compliant way. The president has the prestige and the power to get behind these bills, which envisage the establishment and enablement of a new Chapter Nine Anti-Corruption Commission, (NOT another commission of inquiry and certainly not IDAC). which ticks all the boxes created by the courts in terms that are binding on the state. Accelerating their progress through the legislative process could serve to salvage the prestige of the Ramaphosa presidency, if only the political will to do so can be generated. The bickering between SAPS and IDAC leaders will also end if the single-agency solution the courts require is embraced.If not, the lack of constitutionality of the IDAC unit within the NPA can be litigated. The president was politely warned of the unconstitutionality of IDAC before he signed the bill that made it law. He was not dissuaded from signing, under pressure caused by the 2024 elections then pending.Stark choiceAt this stage the president faces the stark choice of supporting the Breytenbach bills, or of condemning the country to a future in which the ongoing corruption-with-impunity engulfs the nation in a tidal wave of toxic lava..Read more:.Ramaphosa suspends Chauke over fitness concerns, triggering inquiry into high-profile case decisions.The evidence before the Madlanga Commission reveals the toxicity in the current institutional arrangements that are meant to capacitate the criminal justice system and enable it to deal effectively with corruption.The deliberate persistence, troublingly supported by NACAC, in a multi-agency approach (frowned on by the courts) and the failure to implement the Glenister rulings properly, will render valid the negative comparisons with the failed Starmer premiership made by that lowly newspaperman..*Paul Hoffman SC, a native of Johannesburg and a Wits graduate, practised law at the side bar from 1975 to 1980 and at the Cape Bar from 1980 to 2006. He took silk in 1995 and acted on the Cape Bench at the invitation of three successive judges president. After retiring from the Bar, he was founding director of the Centre for Constitutional Rights and co-founder, in 2009, of Accountability Now, both NGOs that promote constitutionalism. He is best known for his work on the irregularities in the arms deals, on the unconstitutionality of the Hawks and on the bread cartel case in which a general class action was developed by the courts. Yoga and long dog-walks on the beaches and mountains around his home in Noordhoek help keep him inspired to seek that elusive better life for all. He is the author of many articles and two books, Confronting the Corrupt, and Countering the Corrupt..This article was first published by Daily Friend and is republished with permission..Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. 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Paul Hoffman: Ramaphosa vows anti-corruption renewal, then puts Dina Pule back in cabinet

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