South African parliament, legislatures, and municipal councils are crime scenes

“There are certain clues at a crime scene which, by their very nature, do not lend themselves to being collected or examined. How does one collect love, rage, hatred, fear...? These are things that we’re trained to look for.” - James Reese Gideon

Many visible and invisible crimes have been committed within Parliament, provincial legislatures, and municipal councils. This is not a recent phenomenon; the apartheid-era parliament committed even more heinous crimes, including crimes against humanity. Some may agree that what has unfolded since then amounts to daylight robbery of land, property, and public trust. Corruption has become the norm.

Without question, there is an ongoing crime against the poor. By implication, the crimes committed in these state institutions are crimes against the state but crimes against its citizens, especially the most vulnerable.

In light of this, it is not unreasonable to suggest that for the past 31 years, Parliament and its subsidiaries have functioned as ongoing crime scenes.

Politics in South Africa appears to have become a “new business,” to the extent that many individuals have left traditional business ventures to pursue it.

In its conventional sense, business is about creating value through goods or services exchanged with customers to generate profit. Platform businesses, in contrast, create value by facilitating connections between user groups.

Yet, in the current political landscape, governance has transformed into something else — less about public service and more about personal enrichment, with politics acting as the infrastructure for questionable dealings.

Some may argue that labelling Parliament, legislatures, and municipal councils as crime scenes is a sweeping generalisation. To this, I respond in the words of Steward Stafford: “One man’s generalisation is another man’s succinct yet profound summation of a complex theory or argument.”

Defenders of the current system will emerge, as DJ Kyos eloquently explains: “Those who benefit from apartheid will defend apartheid. Those who benefit from corruption will defend those who commit corruption... People will defend anything and anyone when they are benefiting, regardless of morality or legality.”

It is undeniable that the lifestyles of many parliamentarians, Members of Provincial Legislatures, and municipal councillors have changed drastically. Their standard of living has become shockingly lavish, far beyond what their official salaries can justify. In a functional society, many of them would not pass a lifestyle audit.

Their expensive homes, luxury vehicles, elite schools for their children, extravagant holidays, lavish parties, and enormous spending during internal political campaigns tell a story that sounds more like fiction than reality.

Add to this: shady funders, political assassinations, fabricated criminal charges, and intra-party arrests. It becomes clear that South African politics has morphed into a cinematic drama, with little accountability.

And yet, political cartels survive and escape scrutiny. Friedrich Engels once observed:“We find two great gangs of political speculators, who alternately take possession of state power and exploit it by the most corrupt ends — the nation is powerless against these two great cartels of politicians who are ostensibly its servants, but in reality dominate and plunder it.”

According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, a crime scene is “any physical scene, anywhere, that may provide potential evidence to an investigator.

It may include a person’s body, any type of building, vehicles, places in the open air or objects found at those locations.”By this definition, Parliament, legislatures, and municipal councils in South Africa qualify as crime scenes—locations where systemic and institutional criminal activities occur.

To move beyond the notion of petty or individual crimes, we must acknowledge that our political system enables systemic criminality.

This crime is not incidental; it is embedded in structures, distorting institutions and policy, and shaping the behaviours of individuals and groups alike. Before someone reminds me of the Setswana saying, "Legodu ke legodu ka morwalo"

(A thief is known by their loot), Let me respond with Carl Sagan’s timeless words: “The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence.”

I have chosen not to list specific cases involving political parties and their leaders simply because "kuningi nje" - there is just too much.

Professor Boitumelo Senokoane is a Professor at the University of South Africa.