Thomas Johnson - The Blog

Businessman and media owner Iqbal Surve's bank accounts were closed. He is a controversial figure and the butt of other media for his businesses practices and aggressive, narcissistic persona. He uses his media company, Independent Media, as his personal marketing department and to attack his critics and those who've crossed him. Independent Media does not have the best of reputations professionally - it pulled out of the Press Council because of its perceived unfairness but rejoined recently.  But it's Surve's ownership of investment company Sekunjalo that brought the most controversy. The Public Investment Corporation, the investment arm of the government pension fund, loaned Surve R5 billion with Sekunjalo as collateral. But the company was massively overvalued. Daily Maverick business editor Tim Cohen in reply to me yesterday about the matter: "Surve's big sin was that he convinced, how we don't know, the administrator of SA's state pensioners cash ...

The mainstream media is alarmed by the formation of the MK Party. It's composed of disaffected supporters. The alarm is exacerbated since Jacob Zuma has thrown his support behind it. The liberal-left blames Zuma and his supporters for SA's state: corruption death spiral, failing state and social and economic decline. While Zuma and those on his coat tails bear a huge responsibility, the entire ANC was and is responsible.  Daily Maverick asks how can Zuma's supporters still back him after what he's done to the country. They've demonized Zuma, and rightly so. But corruption has worsened under Ramaphosa. As president of the country and ANC he failed to act against those in his party, cadres and others complicit in state capture and failed to implement Zondo Commission recommendations. Members of his cabinet including himself (Phala Phala) who have credible allegations implicating them in corruption are sitting pretty. He was head of the cadre deployment committee, the ...

In a recent column, William Saunderson-Meyer writes "The Chapter Nine institutions ... have long lost any credibility they might have had". This is a common and true sentiment. About the July 2021 KZN riots that cost SA R70 billion, he's scathing of the SAHRC's and CRLC's reports that found no one and "Indians [sic]” respectively were to blame. In South Africa lack of accountability is ingrained. The NPA and SAPS have given up or are unable to investigate and prosecute crime, with SAPS making arrests in only 14% of aggravated robbery and 14% of murders.  With separate cases I reported, SAPS told me a fraud case I reported was a "nuisance". And Cape Town NPA said it would be "unfair to prosecute" (sic) the accused, after first, incorrectly, telling me no crime had been committed (they didn't even know the law here).  In another far more serious case, SAPS, NPA and another officer of the court voluntarily - just like that - and unofficia...