Where new jailbird Lula of Brazil is going, 783-charged Zuma sure to follow.

By Alec Hogg

Two very important bits of news hit us yesterday, but the more important of them seemed to get lost in the noise. With SA law enforcement agencies missing in action over the #GuptaLeaks scandal, South Africans have been looking offshore for much needed corrective action.

Yesterday’s announcement that German software multinational SAP has suspended its SA management team was a tonic. It came after the local subsidiary attacked the media and publicly defended its association with a Gupta front company that got R100m of a SAP-related contract with Transnet. SAP Germany followed a similar approach by US consultancy McKinsey.

The news which SA should be paying even more attention to, however, is the sentencing of former Brazilian president President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to nine and a half years for taking a $1.1m bribe from a construction company.

Lest we forget, even before #GuptaLeaks, Lula’s SA counterpart Jacob Zuma still has 783 criminal charges pending. His day in court is inevitable. The wheels of justice might grind slowly. But they grind very finely.

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