Yesterday showed us why SA is NOT an African basket case, nor ever will be

By Alec Hogg

Prophets of doom abound. But South Africa is NOT another African basket case. Nor will it ever become one. The crony capitalist Gupta family and others who have abused the hospitality of Mandela's nation will soon feel the sharp edge of that reality.

Yesterday, Public Protector Thuli Madonsela promised before leaving office end October she will deliver a report on President Jacob Zuma's close friends, the fabulously wealthy Indian immigrants came to South Africa in 1994 with virtually nothing. The ANC's whitewash "investigation" of the Guptas merely postponed the inevitable. The noose is now closing. Little wonder they have decamped to Dubai.

Also yesterday, OUTA repeated its hugely successful anti-etolls video with a similarly damning one explaining the consequences of the proposed R1trn nuclear deal. It's deservedly going viral. And in Parliament, Leader of the Opposition Mmusi Maimane yesterday blazed away at the idea of Zuma's new jet – a R2bn plus extravagance matched only by Air Force One – something no developing nation can afford.

South Africa is a Constitutional Democracy with a functioning electoral system, an independent judiciary and a vibrant, free media. That doesn't mean it is immune to plundering. But it does possess tools to stop those who do so, and to punish them. That, as we are witnessing, is now in process. Hope springs.