Farouk Araie
CAPE TOWN - The murder of Senzo Meyiwa, its political ramifications, the legal quagmire the investigations are deeply entrenched in and the scope and depth of the allegations and counter-allegations read like chapters from a John Le Carre thriller.
What is dramatically unfolding is not fiction but a bizarre chain of events that defy logic and a sense of rationale.
The entire issue is shrouded in an impenetrable veil, a fog of fleeting silhouettes that appear and disappear in a hazy political background.
The scope and massive widespread distribution of the tsunami of information blurs its origins in a world enveloped in deception, disinformation, misinformation and strategic concealment.
What is actually being displayed in 3D points to a conspiracy of immense proportions.
The puzzling sequence of events over the years, the bizarre twists and turns raises a profound question: who is concealing compelling evidence and for what purpose?.
When two or more people present at the crime scene maintain an eerie silence, rest assured a huge conspiracy is in progress.
Is there a cover-up in progress and, at what depth is there a higher involvement?
With the amount of expertise available to law enforcement, this murder could have been solved years ago.
Is there an obstruction of justice by known and unknown elements; are they driving agendas from the shadows?
Conspiracy theories reinforce a belief that nothing in the world happens through coincidence.
This refusal to recognise the role of chance leads many to develop a view in which sinister and top secret conspiracies permeate all layers of the issues at stake.
Deluged with massive mountains of information, it’s easy to become uncertain about what is true and what is false.
Once you are inside a conspiracy rat hole, it’s difficult to come out.
Conspiracy theories are both powerful and enduring, and some that are distinctly possible can wreak havoc on society.
The problem with condemning conspiracy theories is that it plays into the conspiracy theorist’s mind. It is a proven historical fact that conspiracy theories thrive in polarising political climates. They do not emerge in a vacuum.The current political crisis and chaos in the ANC is a classic example.
Any outlandish conspiracy and its toxic twin, fake news, are challenging society’s trust in facts.
These contagions pose a profound threat to many democracies by damaging their bedrock:a shared commitment to truth.
Sadly what we are witnessing is a form of social media warfare, where conspiracy theories spread faster than the salient facts.
Many governments have resorted to conspiracy theories to distract from their own failures to pre-empt criticism.
A puzzling high profile murder has many elements that makes it prime material for conspiracy theories.
In an era of sonic communications, we are vulnerable to manipulation.
Rumours and innuendo bring out the worst in us, inspiring unwarranted attacks, and hurtful comments.
In a crime infested society, conspiracy theories thrive on our fear of the unknown, or the uncertain, and on our tendency to demand absolute proof that something is not the case, and it is difficult to prove something 100% false.
Science, forensics, evidence and criminal technology can prove the events that took place on 26th October 2014.There are a litany of theories, some overlapping and reinforcing, some contradictory, all of them useful in understanding the shadowy power of the conspiracy theory in the 21st century, forcing us to live in a paranoid era.
It is under certain circumstances a way for some to exert control over or within unstable, complex systems.
The devastation caused by the murder of a brilliant soccer icon provides fertile ground for conspiracies to thrive in an atmosphere where truth remains an elusive commodity, the expanding narrative is driven by falsehoods.
The murder of Senzo Meyiwa is “a riddle,wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.
One day the events of that day will be deciphered, and justice will be served. Justice will be seen to be done.
Araie is an independent writer and regular contributor to Independent Media
Cape Times