Prove it or shut up!
Since May this year, the Mail & Guardian has fed us a series of articles on police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi’s alleged “links” with people allegedly under investigation by the so-called elite crime-busting unit for alleged contraband networks. Yet to date no one has been charged with crime related to that investigation.
Two weeks ago, a certain Clinton Nassif was arrested for what the M&G described as “a relatively minor charge”. Yet your previous edition sensationally told readers of some Brett Kebble-linked arrest that would topple dominoes.
We are told by the M&G‘s same gang of pliable reporters that there is a “landlord”, named as Glenn Agliotti. I hold no brief for Agliotti, whom I don’t know. But I ask myself: does the landlord exist? Why isn’t he arrested and charged, as the M&G has been telling readers of his alleged criminality for seven months now?
The same goes for the national commissioner. For any investigator worth his salt to feed readers a weekly dose of slander and innuendo against him, surely he should have a prima facie case, to borrow an infamous phrase?
Your October 27 edition said the arrest of Nassif might have implications for Selebi. I was keen to read the next sentence, only to be bored with: “The M&G has previously confirmed that the Scorpions probe includes the question of whether there is any significance to Selebi’s links with the people around Kebble.” Tell us something better — the price of the M&G — R13,80 — is a lot of money.
The next edition told us about Selebi’s proximity to the “network”. Is that all? The paper says it is not aware of a direct relationship between Nassif and Selebi, while also saying Nassif’s arrest has implications for the commissioner. Are you saying that because Nassif had a business relationship with Selebi’s former secretary in the ANC 14 years ago, Selebi did something wrong?
What I find galling about this so-called exclusive is that we are fed recycled regurgitated material that is so contrived it is becoming a laughing matter. If indeed there was a payment to Selebi by Nassif, why don’t you check his bank account, and tell us some facts?
The source of the story spoke to me for 55 minutes a while ago, while refusing to identify himself. He gave me the same line, but when I asked him if he had proof, he said: “I don’t.” How can a newspaper of the M&G‘s calibre see fit to regurgitate this trite lie without offering a shred of proof?
Lest we forget, the source was fired from a cushy position in a parastatal and blames Selebi for that. He has vowed to bring him down whatever the cost, and has found an ally in the M&G because whatever he says to that gang of reporters is regarded as gospel truth.
A Sunday newspaper has now regurgitated the same story, adding that there was surveillance of Selebi’s driver, the first concrete indication that the Scorpions were probing Selebi. If there was surveillance, then heaven help us, because I have been under the impression for years that surveillance, by its nature, is supposed to be covert.
When the story first broke, the spokesperson for the unit, Makhosini Nkosi, told SAfm that the commissioner was not the subject of an investigation. He breached the policy of that institution, which is not to confirm or deny investigations against individuals. Yet the M&G has underscored the Scorpions’ interest in the relationship between Selebi and the network. It says: “The implication is that Selebi is under investigation.” Who do we believe, the M&G gang or Nkosi?
As the Sunday Independent’s editor, Jovial Rantao, eloquently put it: those who have a bone to pick with Selebi, or think they have evidence against him, must either present it to the authorities or shut up.
Even former cop and now a senior researcher for the Institute of Security Studies, Johan Burger, who has overnight become a critic of the police, told SAfm’s Morning Live programme that the behaviour of that unit in relation to Selebi was “unethical and unprofessional. If they have evidence against him, they must charge him or else leave him alone.”
In a recent interview, where I was present, Selebi asked the M&G‘s Nic Dawes and Stefaans Brümmer why he was being held responsible for the actions of people that he knew.
If the commissioner is guilty of wrongdoing, as the M&G suggests, he must be charged and allowed to have his day in court — finished and klaar! — Selby Bokaba, SAPS national spokesperson
Lay off Zuma, Makhosini
Why has the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) fallen into the media trap of sensationalising the Schabir Shaik appeal outcome?
The media has always sung the song that Shaik’s appeal has a bearing on whether Jacob Zuma would be charged, but NPA spokesperson Makhosini Nkosi had no right to tell us to remember this is one of the reasons the case against Zuma was struck off the roll.
He should know that the dismissal of that case was based on the NPA’s unfair treatment of Zuma, denying him the right to speedy trial six years after the NPA accused him of corruption.
Or is the NPA finally realising its blunder of not trying Zuma and Shaik concurrently, in order for Judge Hilary Squires’s “generally corrupt” verdict on the relationship between Shaik and Zuma to hold?
If the NPA wants to reinstate the case against Zuma, why does it need to call a media conference? Is it to sway public sentiment against him and make him a loser, even if the case against him fails?
Nkosi lied to the nation last year by saying the NPA was ready to prosecute Zuma. When the time came for it to state its case, it chickened out with a host of lame excuses.
If you have a case, bring it, end of story, rather than toy with the idea publicly! — Phillip Musekwa
Malls are not development
South Africa’s transition has given rise to many “specialists” in empowerment and, as a result “empowerment” has been given a new and a false meaning.
This is linked to the current debates about the accumulation trajectory of our economy. The wrong kind of development is presented to the poor as accommodating the previously disadvantaged. But the more they are “accommodated”, the more they are alienated from the African masses.
The building of shopping malls, like the ones recently opened in the Vaal and Jabulani, cannot be justified as a way of empowering the community of the surrounding areas. Who really benefits? The already empowered in the capitalist market benefit at the expense of the poor.
Local and grassroots initiatives are not considered while “charting” development on their behalf. To rub salt into the wound, we are told that so many jobs have been created. What kind of jobs and how sustainable? And what is their impact on the local economy?
If they are to make a difference, development and transformation must include experienced hawkers and spaza shop owners, and poor people with the potential to grow.
And they must involve all stakeholders of communities, not just the developers and “community leaders”. — Mapula Molepo, Polokwane
Our duty is to remember
If it is true that Nelson Mandela paid tribute to PW Botha, as reported in Le Figaro, the explanation cannot lie in “respect for the dead” or “fostering national reconciliation”, as your editorial suggested last week.
The explanation for this bizarre homage lies in the eternal lack of memory of the African man, even where there is a moral obligation of memory.
Without memory there is no history, but apartheid is not even history yet — it is the present of millions.
Botha was a criminal who handed out power only because, for things to stay as they were, things would have to change. That he was not judged and punished during his lifetime tells us only about the weakness of his opponents. It is further confirmation that “power is not given, it is taken”.
Mandela’s lack of memory has nothing to do with age, but rather with what seems this eternal and childish attitude of African man to forget and forgive the most appalling crimes against him: colonisation, slave trade, apartheid.
He is committing an act of treason against those less lucky than him in the fight against apartheid — brothers and sisters killed, maimed and made to disappear.
He is committing an act of treason against the South African people condemned for so long by Botha and other architects of apartheid to a life of inferiority because they were not white. — Azibo Abebe, France
Botha was not a genuine reformer and at best reluctantly responded to political realities. The pass laws were abolished because millions of blacks moved to the cities despite the NP’s best efforts, not because PW believed they were immoral.
He believed that through the tricameral system, nominated MPs, an appointed upper house and a qualified vote for urban blacks, he could rig the political playing field so 12% of the population would have 51% of the vote for at least the next century.
The ANC would have helped rescue its tarnished image if it had reacted to his death by saying: “PW Botha’s political life was noted for his unshakeable belief in apartheid even though he introduced minor reforms in response to international and internal opposition. It is regrettable that he missed an opportunity to contribute to a non-racial South Africa. Nevertheless, we offer condolences to his family.” — Michael Brett, Hartebeeshoek
Unjust immunity for US accomplices
I view with scepticism the judicial process resulting in a verdict sentencing former Iraqi tyrant Saddam Hussein to death. The military tribunal has been fraught with huge inconsistencies, amounting to the total disregard of fundamental provisions of international law.
It is also appalling that the indictment against Saddam and his co-accused excluded a host of accomplices in war crimes from the present and former US administrations. George Bush Snr, Donald Rumsfeld and others actively collaborated with Saddam’s regime during its notorious reign of terror.
Saddam is a tyrant deserving justice. But any judicial process that excludes the political elite associated with successive American governments from facing similar charges of crimes against humanity is incomplete. Such unjust immunity protects the Bush dynasty.
A death sentence for Saddam was the expected outcome, as the original terms of reference of his fraudulent trial were scripted by the former US commander in Iraq, Paul Bremmer, on behalf of his neo-conservative colleagues in Washington.
This mockery of justice may bring an end to the life of Saddam — much to the relief of thousands of his victims in Iraq and Iran — yet sovereignty in Iraq can only be restored once its illegal occupation is ended. — Iqbal Jasset, Media Review Network
Undemocratic
While the DA and the ANC try to claim their small victories during the latest instability in Cape Town, democrats in Cape Town have to lament and mourn the demise of democracy in our city.
Helen Zille’s government is an undemocratically constituted body and history will judge the ANC harshly for bending to what amounts to a local and foreign media campaign by the UnDemocratic Alliance to garrotte our democracy.
It saddens me when our hard-won democracy is bargained away to appease those hell-bent on badmouthing our country in the local and foreign press. — Esmeralda Davids, Cape Town
In Brief
I was very disappointed that our “East meets West” Indian classical music concert on November 5 was neither listed nor mentioned in the Mail & Guardian. In fact, not a single English newspaper listed this event, although they were informed. Surely Gauteng newspapers must know that a great percentage of their readers are Indian and that they, too, might want to be informed about upcoming cultural events? — Berthine van Schoor
I never thought I would live to see the day that M&G staffers joined the legions of South African journalists who can’t tell the difference between “reins” and “reigns”, I now learn that Cynthia Carroll has taken over the “reigns” at Anglo headquarters (“Dear Cynthia”, November 3). Here’s hoping she makes a right royal success of her rein. — M Frey, Somerset West
While hitting out at The Star’s report on the South African National Defence Force, Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota confirmed that some rifles, mortars and ammunition had gone missing in Burundi. The “loss” of lethal weapons by a professional army is not “normal” as Lekota claims. It is shameful and demonstrates poor security and accounting procedures. Ensuring proper control over SANDF weapons and equipment in Burundi and elsewhere is not only a political and economic imperative, it is a matter of life and death. — Richard Wilson, London