With hindsight, perhaps we should revisit the subject of “fishers of corrupt men (and women)” that President Thabo Mbeki *1 cautioned about some two years ago.

He made the point then that on the basis of unsubstantiated allegations, some in our country were convinced that our government was corrupt unless it proved itself innocent.

“The fishers of corrupt men,” Mbeki said, “happily construct doom scenarios that serve their purposes. They speculate about the possibility of a senior official being shown to be corrupt, and how this might lead to the conclusion that the whole procurement process was corrupted, resulting in the ’the whole edifice of the arms procurement exercise’ crumbling. The reality is that the wish is father to the thought.

“But it all sounds terribly dramatic and pregnant with the potential to expose horrifying facts about massive corruption by our government, involving billions of rand. To prepare the public mind, words such as ’scandal’ and ’debacle’ must be, and are used.

“To add to the sense of impending horror, ’senior members of government’ must be implicated, including ’the highest reaches of government’, which means the president.

“Further to whet the appetite for the expected catch that will be brought in by the fishers, the threat is made that a ’shadow of allegations might engulf’ these ’highest reaches’."

When Mbeki wrote this, the then deputy president of the country, Jacob Zuma, was not aware that this Saturday he himself would be at the Magistrate’s Court in Durban to start the long journey to defend himself against charges of corruption.

They arise from the same arms procurement deal that Mbeki spoke about. In the last few weeks, the president has again been expressing himself very strongly against corruption.

The decision to “relieve” Zuma of his duties as deputy president was seen by many as being designed to send a strong signal to the inter national community, particularly investors, that SA would not be yet another case of a corrupt African government.

What has, however, irked Zuma’s supporters is their perception that it was unfair to dismiss him before his guilt had been proven in court. They ask question why they should be told to let the law take its course when that was not respected before Zuma was stripped of his privileges as the second-most important citizen of the republic.

There is a belief that the Scorpions are being used selectively to target political opponents within the ANC. The suggestion is that it is fine for Mbeki to be firm against corruption, but then the Scorpions and their handlers should demonstrate equal vigour to get to the bottom of all the allegations being peddled in government circles about several prominent citizens of this country.

For instance, is there any substance to allegations that a mining magnate is involved with drug cartels? Was there ever a basis for the story that a football honcho knows a thing or two about a murder but will not be touched because he has been kind to important people?

Everybody thought it was common knowledge that the Durban businessmen who are close to Zuma have over the years been very generous to several other politicians in KwaZulu- Natal. How have the politicians escaped the attention of the Scorpions who have expended so much time, energy and state resources to pursuing Zuma?

It could well be that a start had to made somewhere, and that by making Zuma an example, a strong message would be relayed to all that SA will tolerate not a whiff of corruption.

Fair enough. But let us see some even-handedness.

Let us earn more nods of approval from the international community for our stand against corruption by expelling from SA the former Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

The interim government of his country accuses him of drug trafficking and embezzling millions of dollars from the public purse. According to a lawsuit filed in the US, Aristide allegedly looted the public treasury and stole revenues belonging to a national telephone company.

Surely, a government that is so anticorruption as to fire its own deputy president before he has been charged cannot shelter a former president who has been charged with looting the public coffers of a country said to the poorest in the western hemisphere.

The fishers of corrupt men and women that Mbeki spoke about should come out with facts about all that is supposed to be rotten in this land. *

But then the government should be seen to welcome the opportunity to get to the bottom of corruption allegations. The experience of Independent Democrats leader Patricia de Lille and some journalists suggests that when fishers of corrupt men and women do make a catch, sometimes they are made to wish they had stayed away from the deeper waters.

But then, what is the point of fishing if the big ones are out of bounds?

• Madlala is editor and publisher of umAfrika.

With acknowledgements to Cyril Madlala and Business Day.

"The proposition that the government influenced the choice of Thomson by the GFC as one of its sub-contractors is both a blatant falsity concocted by the fishers, and a logical absurdity."

"To insist that the Government must be held to account for minor subcontracts is to misunderstand procurement."

"But of course this does not matter to the fishers, who are intent to prove or otherwise entrench the stereotype of a corrupt African government."

"An aggrieved potential and unsuccessful sub-contractor has taken his grievance to our courts."

"But this gentleman decided to raise, in the media, the matter of an earlier process to acquire corvettes for our Navy."

"In time the details of the truth will come out about how the controversy concerning the 2000 defence procurement emerged and persisted."

"The gentleman litigant, who has raised the matter of Bazan of Spain, may be proved to have been justified in raising this issue, even if he made false claims about a Bazan contract that never was."

"The sooner this fascinating story is told the better, so that we can improve our performance with regard to the achievement of the critical objective of building a truly people-centred society."

"This detailed truthful account would tell our country interesting things about such matters as defence procurement during the apartheid years, and the promotion of political careers and fortunes in contemporary South Africa.

"It would tell a story about the political uses of the racist stereotypes that are part of our daily menu of information and perception, and the formation of popular consciousness."

"As an important part of the struggle to realise this objective, we should not, and will not abandon the offensive to defeat the insulting campaigns further to entrench a stereotype that has, for centuries, sought to portray Africans as a people that is corrupt, given to telling lies, prone to theft and self-enrichment by immoral means, a people that is otherwise contemptible in the eyes of the "civilised"."

"However, what our country needs is substance and not shadows, facts instead of allegations, and the eradication of racism. The struggle continues."