What would you do if confronted with this choice: the Gupta brothers are arrested and their assets in South Africa are attached so they can't use the proceeds of crime to defend themselves; but at the same time President Jacob Zuma, his son Duduzane, and other South Africans involved with the Guptas stand a good chance of getting off scot-free. Would that be OK?
My strong impression, based on a friendship I value with someone who is close to the president, is that the extent of the damage the Guptas have done to the Zumas has finally sunk in.
The authenticity of the leaked Gupta e-mails is beyond doubt.
The catastrophe enveloping the UK public relations firm that advised the Gupta family for all of last year, Bell Pottinger, and that firm's admission that what they did here was wrong, went to the heart of the Presidency.We all know this, but nothing seems to happen. The police seem to do nothing. The NPA seems to do nothing. But, watching the strain on the faces of Eskom executives at their results presentation this week, it was hard to escape the feeling that something has to give — and soon.
There must be 20 senior and mid-level managers at Transnet and at Eskom who know much more than even the e-mails can tell us.
We must pray they find the courage to tell us their stories — and if they need to save themselves in the process, we should be content with that. Normally, courage is a quiet and lonely quality. Think of Steve Biko fighting back in a windowless torture room with five security cops until he was beaten unconscious.
And there might be a way for courage here, too. As I understand it, section 204 of the Criminal Procedure Act allows people to give evidence about criminal activity in which they may have been involved; in return for their co-operation as state witnesses, they avoid prosecution.
But how to get it into court if the police don't take a case to the NPA? Well, you go to the nearest police station and make an affidavit, a charge, detailing what you have seen and who did it and how. This is not the DA laying charges where it finds malfeasance. We know those are never investigated.
Fortunately, it turns out there is a hierarchy of statements in our criminal law. So you and a respected criminal lawyer go to the police station and complete an A1 statement, a dossier, in effect, filled with all the evidence you have. Your lawyer introduces himself to the station commander, as a courtesy, and tells him what you have done.
And then the two of you take your statement directly to the NPA. The NPA either asks the police or the Special Investigating Unit to investigate. Sure, I'm well aware that Shaun Abrahams is in the decision-making line here, and that for the SIU to investigate anything it needs presidential approval.
But my suspicion is that, if someone in finance or IT in any of the state-owned companies, someone with prima facie or hard evidence of crime, were to come forward and seek protection under section 204, it would work for them. I reckon Zuma wouldn't stop it. Shaun the Sheep could finally order a charge worthy of his office.
If I were Zuma, I'd get Duduzane out of there fast, whatever the risk or the cost. Get him to do a Section 204 as well.
Let's finish this agony, Mr President. Get the Guptas out of our public life, and your family's life, while it is still your call...