I will admit that there is the teeniest part of me that is in sympathy with liar-at-large Carl Niehaus.
There is also a large part of me that thinks that the over- done sympathy from sections of the public has its origins in the thinking which permeates the Rhema church: God wants you to be successful, God wants you to drive a Porsche, a Mercedes and Jeep Cherokee, God wants you to live in a R45 000-a-month mansion and go on R100 000 Mauritian and R70 000 Sun City holidays. He also forgives those who repent their sins and acknowledge their weaknesses.
Niehaus clearly has a weak grasp on reality and is incompetent in managing his personal financial affairs. He lies, cheats and obfuscates. You’d not want him in any position of responsibility and you’d be mad to advance him money even if he told you that he had leukaemia as a result of being gang raped in prison.
My sympathy arises, though, from the fact that his career in short-changing a string of victims has to date, as far as we know, not resulted in a single prosecution. The principal case against him is that he cannot manage his financial affairs. But the ANC has as its president a man who by all accounts finds this equally as challenging.
The charge sheets in the case of of the state versus Jacob Zuma alleges that the accussed received more than R4-million in payments from Schabir Shaik, now serving a 15-year sentence on counts of corruption and fraud. Shaik had in effect taken over Zuma’s life, managing his financial affairs and acting as a money tap Zuma could turn on and off as he wished.
There has been the expectation for several years now that Zuma would get his day in court and that the country would be able to decide, based on evidence led in court, whether he is innocent or guilty and by implication, fit to lead this country as president. But now the election is scheduled for April and Zuma will appear in court only in August to answer the 90-page charge sheet.
Shaik’s group of companies had no capital, no management expertise, a large overdraft and no technological know-how, according to the charge sheet. Nkobi benefited Zuma through 783 payments totalling R4 072 499,85 between October 1995 and July 2005. The charge sheet says that the payments to Zuma made no legitimate business sense in that Nkobi companies could not afford the payments, being in a cash-starved position at least until August 2004.
Nkobi relied on and at times exceeded its bank overdrafts, “thus effectively borrowing money from banks at the prevailing interest rates to make the said payments interest free”. “On the other hand,” the charge sheet says, “the group’s survival depended upon obtaining profitable new business, inter alia, with the assistance of the accused.”
The funds were paid to Zuma without security. “This is not a usual commercial practice with banks, more especially in respect of a customer with [Zuma’s] risk profile.”
The charge sheet says that Shaik made it clear that Nkobi’s role in joint ventures with other parties was to provide political connections (as opposed to financial resources or technical expertise). “It was generally well understood that the political connection was so strong from Shaik’s side that there was no need for Nkobi to provide money or expertise.”
It says that Shaik’s political connections included pre-eminently accused number one (Zuma), which in turn was founded also on his financial dependence on Shaik. Zuma may or may not be suitable to be president of this country. He may satisfy the judge of his innocence and convince enough voters that even though he apparently has trouble balancing his own personal bank account, he is up to the job of running a modern economy. We have in this country now a strong tradition of innocence until proven guilty.
You can run for president even while facing charges of receiving 783 unlawful payments from a convicted felon. Contrast this with the United States, where Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich was recently impeached after allegations emerged that he intended selling Barack Obama’s vacant senate seat.
Niehaus, as a high-profile player, created a massive problem for the ANC when his financial shenanigans were made public, but you have to think that he is a minnow in this drama. The problem for the ANC is the big fish that heads the organisation.