While all Bosasa revelations continue to sicken a nation sickened by Zuptagate, there are three bits of information that caught my attention, which I found especially disturbing.
The first was the special leave taken by the Zondo Commission’s own secretary, Dr. Khotso de Wee after he was fingered as someone who accepted bribes from Bosasa.
According to the country’s most famous whistle-blower Angelo Agrizzi, this company bribed De Wee in 2013 when he was at the Department of Justice.
If true, then it is a genuine sickening irony that Bosasa was able to buy a top official in the Justice Department.
It’s becoming apparent that the company’s tentacles didn’t just infiltrate far and wide, it was, in fact, choking and strangling the nation’s moral fibre from the inside out.
PAID?: Commission Secretary Dr. Khotso de Wee
The second was the emotional plea from Dennis Bloem, that the mysterious death of former prisons boss Vernie Petersen is investigated.
He died eight years ago after being transferred, allegedly because he was very vocal against corruption, especially the tenders awarded to Bosasa.
Bloem couldn’t praise Petersen enough, calling him a “corruption buster” who couldn’t be bought.
Here’s another scary thought, a good man may have been murdered to keep the taps of bribery wide open and gushing.
So pervasive was Bosasa’s involvement that Petersen’s death was questioned only for a short while and then we all just moved right along.
I suppose it’s hard to keep your integrity intact when cash is being waved in front of you.
The problem is that this is our cash, which we entrust to our leaders to guard jealously and spend wisely for our benefit.
And the third was having one of the most powerful men in the country feel the need to go to extraordinary lengths to prove his innocence.
Gwede Mantashe is not the sort of person who takes easily to being cross-questioned.
HEAT: Gwede Mantashe. Photo: MIKE HUTCHINGS/REUTERS
So when he was accused of being a recipient of Bosasa resources to improve the security at his houses, it raised eyebrows across the political divide.
But not as much as when he decided to take journalists on a tour of the houses to prove his innocence.
It is starting to reek of the well-worn adage of “protesting far too much”.
And if you think that’s an over-statement, consider his statement to a camera: “I never interacted with them, I’m not on the payroll of Bosasa. I was never on the payroll of Bosasa.
“Never in my life,” he said, before getting his head of security to say the same thing differently.
Make no mistake, if this was any other year in which elections were not being held, Gwede would not be pandering to anyone or anything.
But that is the power of the information coming out of the Zondo Commission.
It is cutting through the egos of many politicians while causing others to shuffle uncomfortably in their chairs.
It is exposing our politics as not only a dirty business but also a very dangerous business, where lives are threatened with anonymous phone calls, incriminating documents are stolen during home burglaries, witnesses are given special protection and those who don’t step in line may be killed.
Never mind bettering the lives of the citizens, this is self-enrichment of epic proportions.
South Africans may have a short memory when it comes to wrongdoing, and with elections less than 14 weeks away, nobody is taking any chances.