Is there a crime index in South Africa that determines corruption is worse than racism, worse still, that suspected corruption is worse than demonstrable racism?
I have observed with interest how racist rants by Roman Cabanac have been treated in the media as better than the suspicious loan Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development Thembi Simelane received from alleged VBS bank looter Ralliom Razwinane.
At last count, Razwinane faced 13 counts of corruption related to the VBS bank corruption.
In as far as every charged person being assumed innocent, there is little doubt that the Simelane loan was wrong and the obviousness of this suggests intentionality. So the media is right to haul her over the coals, especially since nobody else was.
What I don’t understand though is the attempt to scale Simelane’s discretion above Cabanac’s and the complicity of blacks in this. In fact, one writer noted: “The news of Cabanac’s appointment might seem downright trivial… in the same week that the (ANC) minister of justice was exposed for allegedly… playing her part in the looting of VBS Bank.”
The first thing that jumped out from this downplaying of racism as being not as bad as corruption was the mischaracterisation of the allegation against
Sime-lane.
Simelane, then known as Thembi Nkadimeng, was mayor of Polokwane municipality that banked hundreds of millions of rands with VBS against the rules that prohibit this.
Can any person not interested in spin call this looting of VBS? No; rather of Polokwane municipality.
She then, and this is uncontested, obtained a R500-million loan from a company operated by Razwinane.
It is important to locate Razwinane for better understanding. He was hired by VBS to cultivate clients for the bank, and presumably one was the Polokwane municipality.
It is impossible to imagine that the first point of significant contact Razwinane had with Polokwane municipality was anybody else other than Simelane.
Razwinane was co-founder of financial solutions firm Gundo Wealth Solutions – a company registered as such by the Financial Sector Conduct Authority.
It is suspicious that Simelane sought a loan from such a company, it would even be worse if Razwinane offered the loan. It is impossible to imagine a circumstance in which the loan could have been discussed between the two that shouldn’t have sounded alarm bells but suppose Simelane is very naïve.
Still, this does not equate to looting VBS. The loan was not applied for at VBS but from a separate company Simelane, unless involved in the criminality, would not have known it obtained its funds from VBS illegally.
It’s completely realistic to assume that a broker could be used by an innocent party to shop for the best interest rate on their behalf. In this particular case, it would be naïve but not criminal.
But unfortunately for Simelane, the preponderance of evidence suggests she knew more. She must or should have known that Polokwane banking with VBS was against the law.
Despite all these missteps, she can still offer a plausible explanation for her naivety. If you juxtapose this with Cabanac’s racist post, the most offensive or at the very least some, which have since been deleted, indicate awareness of the offence, yet it is being downplayed.
One of the most painful statements I ever heard was: “Apartheid would not have been as successful or lasted as long without the complicity of the oppressed.”
Why are we as blacks complicit in our own denigration?
Nowhere is a better illustration of this than in the case of two women killed and thrown into a pigsty in Limpopo recently.
Though the three accused – Zachariah Olivier (60), William Musoro (45) and Andriaan de Wet (19) supposedly acted with common purpose, only two have a lawyer. You can guess which by just looking at the names.
None of Freedom Under Law, Afriforum, DA or Suzman Foundation will help the third accused obtain a lawyer. He will have to rely on Legal Aid.
I am sure all along Musoro thought, “I must keep my mouth shut to protect my bros”. This complicity has resulted in him being the only one without a lawyer, and sure enough the strategy his co-accused with employ is that he alone is the killer.
Over and over, this becomes the fate of blacks who become complicit in the annihilation of their kind.
Once used and washed up, they are fed to the dogs like Musoro yet more volunteer to this cause every day.
What did Biko say? Black man you are on your own yet you still choose them when they never choose you.
- Bizokwakhe is a columnist at large with -obviously too much time on his hands to think silly things
