Scarborough 2008
Ten meetings with prosecuting boss Vusi Pikoli - as well as a "top secret" letter - did nothing to convince President Thabo Mbeki that there was a corruption case against Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi.
In an affidavit filed on Monday, acting National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) head Mokotedi Mpshe also revealed that Pikoli informed six top government officials — including Justice Minister Brigitte Mabandla, Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula and Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota — of the "serious" graft claims against Selebi.
Independent Online | Who is lying?
Need we ask? Who's lying, that is. That many believed Mbeki's assertion he had no evidence to support allegations against Selebi stupefies me. When did so-called educated people come to take a politician at his / her word? What is said has no, and has never had, bearing on any action taken.
Pikoli was booted out because he informed Cabinet of the case he was building against Selebi, under whom any Scorpions remaining in the public sector will now "serve" and suffer. And Mbeki virtually told us as much by citing, as his reason for firing Pikoli, a breakdown in the relationship between the Scorpions' boss and Justice Minister Mabandla.
People fail to understand the depths of ties that bind the old "struggle-istas" — they enjoy relationships forged under circumstances about which most know nothing. "Jackie" is secure — if anybody does take him down, they'd better have equal resources backing them.
Scarborough 2008
President Thabo Mbeki tackled the ANC head-on in Parliament today, proposing a new, bigger specialised unit incorporating the Scorpions to fight organised crime. In direct repudiation of Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula, who promised earlier this week that the Scorpions would be completely dismantled, Mbeki said he would propose a new specialised unit including intelligence capacity and still guided by the national prosecuting Authority.
Mbeki’s comments beg many, many questions, but they do not reflect the decision of the ANC National Executive Committee that the Scorpions should be disbanded and their investigators scattered across the police force. Mbeki appears to be proposing a new institution outside of the police service, which is exactly what the NEC does not want.
The Times | Mbeki proposes new Super Scorpions
As if to bear out my statement above, i.e. words have no bearing on action, President Thabo Mbeki ducked behind an obfuscatory smokescreen of ambiguity in Parliament today. Let's look at the thrust of this morning's speech.
First, the President's humiliation at Polokwane left him powerless, a vassal of Zuma's newly elected NEC. Secondly, it was Mbeki that fired Ngcuka and Pikoli. Thirdly, it is he who is neutralising our crime-fighting capabilities.
The adversarial relationship enjoyed by the DSO and the Executive goes back years. Thabo's bullshitting again and this amounts to no more than an attempt to appear assertive — to manufacture a confused consensus and illusion of heated debate. But his authority is ephemeral, vapid. He takes his orders from Zuma through the NEC and, in this instance, the Minister of Safety and Security has more credibility than he.
They are pulling his strings.
This speech, whatever its raison d'etre and which does not preclude the Scorpions and other agencies being incorporated into the devastatingly counterproductive and ineffective SAPS, will change nothing as far as the Scorpions are concerned; it will do little to resurrect Thabo Mbeki's sadly tarnished image, and it won't secure his future as a force in the ANC.
Thabo's words are the stuff of smoke and mirrors. If he was articulating real intent, why disband the Scorpions in the first place? Why not beef up the existing, functional organisation?
Disputes within the Alliance, e.g. the Zuma, Selebi, inter-alliance partner tensions, etc. are fought on different, often-overlapping levels. The Mbeki—Zuma feud has no bearing on this specific issue, i.e. the two adversaries are of like mind on it, and old hands know when and how to appraise and separate sites of struggle and degrees of reprisal.
Whichever way one looks at it, the Scorpions' dissolution is a stuff-up of epic proportions with far-reaching implications and potentially devastating consequences. South Africa — powerless, leaderless and rudderless is drifting up an extremely rocky creek without a paddle. Many South Africans, who played no part in the development of our leaders' blind loyalty to each other, will die.
Internationally, we're being written off. The only upside to this tragicomic situation — compounded by our debilitating energy shortage, economic slowdown, infrastructure implosion, descent into anarchy, etc. is that, somehow, our ability to draw from a bountiful fount of growth appears unimpaired.
And if we ever are ejected back into the mainstream from this succession of fast-flowing follies, we'll certainly be the better for having survived what appear now to be insurmountable crises of our own making.
