Parliament’s ad hoc committee investigating the Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi saga appeared before suspected syndicate kingpin Vusi “Cat” Matlala at Kgosi Mampuru prison this week.
Yes, you read that right. Otherwise, how would you explain the deference some of the committee members showed the man accused of committing serious crimes and capturing at least one police minister?
If the committee chair Soviet Lekganyane wasn’t stroking Matlala’s ego during the two days of hearings by repeatedly using his clan name, Mokone, as if he was some great village elder, MK Party MP Vusi Shongwe was saluting him as a “grootman” — a term of respect usually reserved for older, influential men.
At the end of the sorry exhibition, some of the committee members even queued to shake the hand of the incarcerated attempted murder suspect, who openly claimed to have given Bheki Cele a Woolies bag full of money and being close friends with a drug dealer.
Nauseating.
Lots of time for overalls later
Like many South Africans, Hogarth was startled when he saw EFF boss Julius Malema arrive at the jailhouse hearing in a tailored suit, not his party’s traditional uniform of red overalls. Did he have so much respect for the alleged thug that he thought to appear before him in his Sunday best?
At least he had a plausible explanation when he was asked about his choice of attire: “I didn’t want to be confused with the residents here.”
Hogarth can empathise — there really is a thin line between a red and an orange overall. Especially if you are a convicted criminal out on bail pending sentencing.
The cat who got the cream
It was Shongwe, however, who took fawning adulation to extremes. After asking Matlala about his level of education (in the conventional schooling system, presumably), Shongwe wanted to know what advice he could give young boys in the township “who want to be you”, because Matlala was a snappy dresser and “that inspires a lot of kids”.
Even Matlala looked bewildered, as if unsure if he was still in front of a parliamentary committee or fielding questions from his fan base.
Those nine lives are almost up
Hogarth must, however, praise those members of the committee — mostly women — who refused to be charmed by Matlala’s calmness under pressure or be seduced by his designer clothing. Take this exchange between the DA’s Glynnis Breytenbach and Matlala:
Breytenbach: Mr Matlala, you’re not a businessman. You’re a crook.
Matlala: I am.
Breytenbach: You’re a thief, you’re a fraud and you’re corrupt. And the problem in this country today is that people like yourself, clothe yourself in respectability of calling yourself a businessman, when you are nothing but a dishonest thug. You make an illicit fortune by stealing from the poorest of the poor. It is people like you and your associates that have robbed generations of South African children of their futures. Shame on you, sir. I’m finished chair."
For a moment there, Matlala seemed to have been shamed into silence.
Hogarth wonders about that response, “I am.” Was he sticking with his “businessman” story, or was he confessing that Breytenbach is right about him?
A strategic retreat
Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla has quit parliament amid a scandal surrounding 17 South Africans and a Botswana citizen who find themselves in war-torn Ukraine after being sent to Russia for what the ex-president’s daughter and her associates had, apparently, said would be normal bodyguard training.
Although she was present at an MK Party media conference to announce her resignation, journalists were barred from asking her questions. However, for someone who had just lost her source of income, Zuma-Sambudla looked rather jovial.
Could it be the relief that, having quit as an MP, she won’t have to appear before parliament’s ethics committee?
From Isandlwana to Donbas
The issue of the men stuck in Ukraine is no laughing matter and Hogarth hopes they all return safely to their families. But an interview with a family member of one of the trapped men in Sowetan newspaper left Hogarth wondering what Zuma-Sambudla and her associates told the Russians when they offered the group’s services as freelance soldiers.
In the interview, the family member complained that “these kids have never even used a bush knife” and added: “Even though they are Zulu, … they don’t know how to carry sticks. But now they are forced to go and fight."
Zuma-Sambudla and her associates might have promised Moscow to expect an impi in the King Shaka tradition, but the interview in Sowetan makes clear that in the democratic South Africa, they don’t make Zulus like they used to.
Waxing the Brazilians
Although Hogarth joins all South Africans in celebrating the success of the G20 summit, he is still hoping for a full briefing on what was agreed and how it will help South Africa and the continent create jobs.
However, Hogarth thinks Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi went a bit overboard in his reporting on what transpired on the sidelines of the summit.
In his feedback, the premier reported on two Brazilian pilots who were in an e-hailing taxi with two South African women they had met “at an entertainment area”.
“After failure to agree to a certain transaction with these ladies, the two pilots decided to leave the Uber and wanted to walk to Kempton Park from Sandton. The police intercepted them and provided the necessary support and resolved the matter with the ladies, who agreed to a reduced transaction ... with a discount of 70%. On the basis of this, the matter was regarded as closed,” reported Lesufi.
So, our cops now also act as negotiators in “sex-for-money” disputes?
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