I have sometimes wondered rather uselessly at the magnificent logic of our government to release convicted criminals by the dungeon-load, only to have the felons clambering frantically to be locked up again.

Then I also remembered once seeing a bumper sticker that exhorted people to avoid dishonesty because "the government hates competition", and everything suddenly made sense.

Otherwise the release of criminals would not greatly concern or worry me, except that their condition for going back into chookey, which the criminals always seem to relish, is to have committed more crimes.

In other words, the criminals-release programme is a leaking bucket, if you like - whatever highly questionable "good" the authorities hope to extract or establish by freeing the jailbirds, is always cancelled out by the criminals doing what they do best, which is getting into more trouble.

But our government, in its infinite wisdom, never seems to notice this anomaly. The thinking seems to go like this: "Oh, they are where? In jail? No, that can't be right. Free them! And if they come back again, why, we will throw the prison doors wide open again!"

Monotonous

I suppose this monotonous going in and out of prison would test to the limit even the steely nerves and resolve of the most determined sympathisers with criminals, and the boredom somehow had to be ameliorated.

A variation on the theme was bound to come along, whether as a test case for future such incidents I do not know.

Someone in Ekurhuleni went off to a bank and lied about his true state of affairs. He misrepresented himself as the senior magistrate of Benoni, and lied to the financial institution that he was the beneficiary of a car allowance, and duped the bank to finance his vehicle which, if the truth had been told, no such scheme would have been entered into by the bank.

A little while after the bank had approved the fraudulent deal, the truth came out and the man was nailed. His employer, the justice department, suspended him for dishonesty and fraud.

And just a few days ago this fraudster was - I kid you not - back at his job as (still not kidding) the chief magistrate of Benoni.

The police authorities will perhaps chafe under the collar at this, but not so long ago the trick to survive in this urban legal jungle was to be able to tell the cops from the robbers. But not anymore; that is not enough now.

Convicts

Who convicts whom in cases presided over by the chief magistrate of Benoni? A case of the pot finding the kettle guilty of being black, you might say.

Why is the minister of justice adopting such an apparently laissez-faire attitude to this utterly abominable state of affairs? I understand parliament must first rule on the man's suspension before it can become effective, otherwise back to his job he goes.

But to promote such a man to the post of chief magistrate is a mockery of the hallowed office and a gross insult to the men and women magistrates of Benoni, who must become underlings of this unsavoury character, and to all magistrates in the country.

There was a time when I was very ready to defend this government, because then there were perceptions of standards allegedly dropping because blacks were in charge and the competitive edge was said to be going out the window.

But I am no longer such a blind and unquestioning believer because, in truth, no one will convince me that we are raising the bar with things such as a dishonest man, accused of fraud, presiding over honest men and women in Benoni.

At this rate, pray tell me, how soon before we appoint an arsonist the chief of the fire brigade? Or grooming Schabir Shaik to take over as governor of the Reserve Bank?

And putting our faith in the public protector is just about useless, as the man's record on the recent matters he has heard does not inspire faith in that institution anymore.

Lame

I am full up to my neck with the lame and romanticised notion of "our young democracy"; for heaven's sake, at 11 years old a child is no longer a baby - he or she can be pretty much relied upon to do quite a lot of things on their own, with little or no supervision. But we, conveniently, choose to remain a baby democracy in perpetuity.

That is why elected members of parliament have no qualms about brazenly stealing taxpayers' money by falsely filching off millions of rands through a giant scam of travel vouchers, and handsomely paid MECs, mayors and senior officials steal from the public coffers.

But wait for the biggest theft of all in a few days, theft from the electorate, when the so-called window opens to allow turncoats and their fellow travellers to cross the floor and desert the parties for which they were elected, while retaining their seats!

And this mammoth fraud is called democracy!

On second thoughts, maybe the notion that we are a young nation is very apt ... but, in defence of my beautiful teenage children, they don't behave in so despicable a manner!

·  Jon Qwelane's column is published each week on News24, courtesy of Jon Qwelane and the editor of Sunday Sun, which originally carried the article.

With acknowledgements to Jon Qwelane and News24.