There is a story doing rounds in tabloids about the appointment of Zongezile Zumane as CEO of Sinorita Nhlabathi Hospital in Ladybrand in July last year. The story was sparked by a regrettable recording of a conversation between the Premier and a journalist of Sunday World.
I do not want to speak about the cruelty of secretly recording a conversation with the Premier and turning her into a permanent target for cheap political ends. That’s a story for another day. I think we need to reflect on what we say must happen to offenders who have served time in prison. And this conversation must be located with the context of a society that claims to believe in justice.
There seems to be a strange cruelty that lives among us in this country. A cruelty of people who believe that once a human being has fallen, they must remain on the ground forever. A cruelty of those who whisper “criminal record” deliberately to condemn people to a permanent curse. And today, that cruelty has found a new target in the person of Mr. Zumane.
We are told that the provincial government has committed an unforgivable sin by appointing someone with a criminal record to serve as CEO of Sinorita Nhlabathe hospital. We are told that this appointment is flawed and morally reckless. We are essentially told to panic. But all I can say is that you must run for your life when a naked person offers you a shirt.
Because those leading the outrage are themselves unclothed morally and intellectually. They have nothing to offer but indignation and yet they want to dress society. What exactly do we believe prison is for? Is it a hell where people are thrown to burn forever and a dungeon where souls are permanently discarded? Didn’t we claim that prisons in a democratic reality must be rehabilitation centres meant to mend souls? We cannot build a society on the lie of redemption and then deny redemption when it arrives at our doorstep. Zumane served his sentence and paid his debt to society, why must he be destroyed? Last time I checked there was no dustbin for human beings.
The logic of unending punishment is the logic of a society that has lost its own self-worth. It is the hypocrisy of people who secretly believe that if they were to fall, they would not deserve to be discarded. It is people who believe only they deserve second chances. I am reminded of the biblical wisdom, “let the one without sin cast the first stone”. Who among us has lived a life of spotless perfection? Who among us can say we have never erred and never stumbled? The difference between many of us and Zumane is simply that his mistakes were prosecuted and ours remain hidden.
Many of our hospitals are collapsing. Corridors smell of neglect. Patients wait for hours, sometimes days. Infrastructure is crumbling. We are facing a serious crisis that requires skilled and experienced administrators not saints. Zumane brings precisely that. He brings with him years of experience as a healthcare professional and seasoned public service administrator. The decision of government to appoint him must not be judged by moral panic but by his performance. If Zumane fails, we will hold him accountable. If he succeeds, we shall have the humility to admit that rehabilitation does indeed work.
Let it be known that some of us refuse to join this chorus of engineered outrage, we are ready to defend the ethic of forgiveness and reintegration. Prisons are not hell-holes where people are sent to burn incessantly. Those walls are meant to be bridges back to society. If we tear down those bridges, then we are the ones pushing people into permanent criminality. We must have the courage to allow people to rise after they have fallen. Anything less is hypocrisy dressed up as virtue.
In the end, you must never applaud the generosity of a naked person offering you a shirt. Just simply ask why they have none themselves…
*Tshediso Mangope moonlights as a social commentator and writes in his own personal capacity.
** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of this publication (Journal News).
