The wheels of justice are finally turning in South Africa
Dec 12th 2019PRETORIASO BAD WAS corruption under Jacob Zuma, South Africa’s president from 2009 to 2018, that people referred to it as “state capture”. Cyril Ramaphosa, Mr Zuma’s successor, thinks it cost the country 1trn rand ($95bn) in looted funds and lost GDP. And that is just the tangible expense. State capture also deepened a pervasive sense that, 25 years after apartheid, South Africans are dangerously short of trust in each other and hope for the future.The person charged with restoring some of both is Shamila Batohi, who left the International Criminal Court to take charge of South Africa’s National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) in February. Her appointment is central to Mr Ramaphosa’s efforts to clean house. “Everyone says there is a lot on my shoulders,” says Ms Batohi. “The people of South Africa are impatient, understandably so.”Choose us for news analysis that respects your time and intelligenceSubscribe to The EconomistWe filter out the noise of the daily news cycle and analyse the trends that matterWe give you rigorous, deeply researched and fact-checked journalism. That’s why Americans named us their most trusted news source in 2017Available wherever you are—in print, digital and, uniquely, in audio, fully narrated by professional broadcastersThis website adheres to all nine of NewsGuard‘s standards of credibility and transparency.ORContinue reading this articleRegister with an email address