Ace Magashule and the journalists (sic) of the Independent (sic) group seem adamant the Hawks are about to arrest the ANC secretary-general. The priority crime unit and Magashule’s lawyers, and the rest of SA’s media, say differently. In short, it’s all as clear as carefully slung mud.
To be fair to the Independent (sic) group, it’s only reporting what it’s probably being fed. Magashule himself apparently verified the news of his impending arrest, telling IOL late on Tuesday night: “I’m aware. I’m aware. It’s going to be a Hollywood-style type of thing. But we will see.”
On Wednesday, after the report had been denied by pretty much every South African who doesn’t work for Magashule or Independent’s Iqbal Survé, the secretary-general and his media stenographers seemed to double down via a headline that couldn’t really have been more clear: “‘I’m aware of the arrest warrant, they’re coming. It’s not fake news,’ says Ace Magashule.”
Somewhat curiously, that quote didn’t appear anywhere in the article below it, while another seemed to be a reheated version of Tuesday night’s, with Magashule reportedly saying: “I’m aware. I said it’s going to be a Hollywood-style type (of) arrest. They shouldn’t spin it now."
Now there are many possible explanations for the wildly differing realities being presented by Magashule and his court on the one hand and everyone else on the other.
One might be that Magashule and IOL are telling that truth. If this is the case, then it is possible that someone tipped off Magashule, who promptly told IOL, which required the Hawks to feign ignorance because they’d been embarrassed, and which forced his lawyers to deny it because, well, that’s, er, that’s ... what lawyers do?
I’m not saying that’s a probable scenario, but looking at the sum total of all theoretically possible events in this universe and all parallel ones, it’s something to consider. For about nine seconds.
Arresting allegedly corrupt kingpins isn’t traditionally something that hurts presidents’ polls. But this is the ANC we’re talking about and the ANC lives by two unbreakable rules: never spend your own money and never, ever arrest senior criminals.
Another, slightly more plausible, explanation is that the story is a further attempt to discredit President Cyril Ramaphosa.
I know this sounds odd. Arresting allegedly corrupt kingpins isn’t traditionally something that hurts presidents’ polls. But this is the ANC we’re talking about and the ANC lives by two unbreakable rules: never spend your own money and never, ever arrest senior criminals. Ever.
Oh, you can issue angry statements about corruption that don’t actually mention anyone’s names, or you can redeploy them for a few years, or you can banish them to some distant ambassadorial post. But if you start arresting people such as Magashule, you’ve clearly gone mad and might as well start demanding that municipalities keep proper accounts.
In other words, sending the Hawks to arrest anyone in the ANC’s top 100 is a kind of heresy – an act that is wickedly un-ANC. And if Ramaphosa has approved the arrest, then he is not only revealing himself as less ANC than the people he’s persecuting, but he is also showing the sort of un-ANC tendencies that ought to get a comrade recalled.
Of course, there’s a third possibility, namely, that the story was a kind of fire drill.
For all his bravado and the glacial progress of his opponents, Magashule does now seem to be engaged in a fighting retreat. His salad days are past him and from here on his focus will be on survival rather than domination.
This will require him to be surrounded by only the most loyal followers. And what better way to test that loyalty than by dropping a bombshell just before midnight (the favourite hour of the Zupta cabal) to see which of his Free State posse of cowboys kicked over the tables and reached for their shooting irons, and which dived for cover behind the bar?
Still, as I said, it’s all as clear as mud. All that’s certain is that, right now, there’s bucketloads of the stuff being flung about.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.