The Zuma-Gupta relationship did not evolve spontaneously, writes Elvis Masoga.
Folks, could you please fasten your seatbelts and indulge in breathless meditation in anticipation of an extremely distressing news: South Africa has officially become a fully-fledged mafia state. And the names of the supreme commanding godfathers of the RSA Mafia Incorporated are: President JG Zuma, Duduzane Zuma, Ajay Gupta, Atul Gupta and Rajesh Gupta.
I will revert back to this critically incisive viewpoint at a later stage. It would certainly take a numb-minded hothead to refute or ignore the omnipresent truth that South Africa has fantastically morphed into a democratic mafia state.
A democratic mafia state is an inverted system of democracy whereby top government leaders collaborate secretly with notorious mafia corporates and syndicates. All ultra-powerful mafia syndicates worldwide are surreptitiously steered and commanded by respective family patriarchs.
The penultimate motive of this mafia-politico complex is to ameliorate the efficacy of government and consequently turn it into a plundering paradise. Mafias will customarily fund and sponsor the lifestyles of politicians in exchange for illegal and illicit systemic favours.
Secondly, the mafia will extend financial favours to designated politicians in exchange for protection from police raid, arrest and prosecution. Under abnormal circumstances, implicated politicians will impel the mafia to intimidate or even assassinate rival politicians, opponents and adversaries.
Anyone perceived to be an irritating impediment to the mafia-politico ambitions would certainly be exterminated or removed from the equation. This ignoble mafia-politico brotherhood is primarily and deviously geared at subverting the rule of law, good governance and fiscal prudence.
At long last, a diligent group of investigative journalists have provided our besieged nation with insurmountable evidence that South Africa is officially a mafia state. Tons of leaked email correspondences between the Guptas and top government leaders attest to a very strong link between the Jacob Zuma administration and the Gupta mafia.
Between 2009 and 2017, the immigrant Gupta family has been riding roughshod over our public resources, precious minerals and national sovereignty. Directly entangled and excessively instrumental in this mafia-politico thievery is Zuma and his family, Gupta brothers, cabinet ministers, deputy ministers, premiers, MECs, mayors and senior government officials. Interestingly, almost all of Zuma's close allies have received some financial and material trappings from the Guptas.
Consequent to that, the implicated ministers, premiers and mayors have variedly and nefariously diverted dozens of lucrative government tenders to Gupta-owned companies and subsidiaries. In lieu of the leaked emails, Zuma and some of his children have been feasting on millions of rand as illicit financial kickbacks from the Guptas.
The pillaging ruthlessness and rapacious gravity of the Zuma-Gupta mafia interaction proves it did not evolve spontaneously or miraculously. This symbiotic mafia project was meticulously thought out and hatched shortly after Zuma's presidential inauguration in May 2009.
The president's predatory and ultra-corrupt relations with the Guptas evolved roughly five months after his presidential inauguration. Impressively, that was incidentally a monumental time when the Zuma administration secretly approved the installation of security measures at the president's Nkandla homestead.
At that time, about R26.8million was strictly and exclusively budgeted for the Nkandla security upgrading. Like fearless bank robbers, the Zuma administration brazenly twisted and inflated that budgeted amount to an unbelievable R246m.
Another majestic exhibition of the Zuma-Gupta mafia complex was uncovered and widely reported by the media in 2013. A private jet filled with guests to a Gupta wedding ceremony was illegally permitted (by Zuma/government) to land at a designated Waterkloof military airport. In terms of military jurisprudence, it is illegal and unlawful for private persons to enter a designated military precinct without any authorised permission.
In 2012 it became shockingly evident that the Gupta-owned companies were harvesting lucrative tenders and contracts from various government departments and parastatals. With the president fully trapped in the claws of the Guptas, it became smooth sailing for the three Indian immigrant brothers.
Cabinet ministers, deputy ministers, premiers and mayors were secretly instructed (probably by Number 1) to share top-secret and confidential procurement data with the three Gupta brothers. In 2015 the nation was alerted to a scary truth that the Guptas were actually the ones who appoint and dismiss cabinet ministers. In December 2015 then Finance minister Nhlanhla Nene was removed, mafia-style, from his position necessarily because he vigilantly defied several illegal instructions from the Guptas. Overheating pressure from the Russians and Guptas pushed the ultra-greedy Zuma in April 2017 to axe Nene’s successor, Pravin Gordhan from the National Treasury.
South Africa is not the first (nor possibly the last) democratic state to eventually plunge into commanding dungeons of the mafia cartels. For the benefit of readers, let me showcase a brief historical illustration of the illustration of the Italian mafia-politico complex.
In the mid-19th century, the Italian Mafia Brotherhood (IMB) evolved within several precincts across Italy. The IMB’s evolution was largely occasioned by the central government's inability to bring socio-political order in society. With the passage of time, the IMB disappeared into the wilderness and was mysteriously replaced by four spinter mafia organisations in early 20th century.
At first these underworld mafia cartels traded in illegal commodities, money laundering and mercantile battering.
Soon, the mafia began to fund and bankroll some anointed politicians and other influential community leaders.
During elections, the mafia will fund and support the electoral campaigns of their preferred designated politicians. Upon election into government office, these sponsored politicians will unfailingly and consistently channel lucrative tenders and contracts to companies which are owned/controlled by beneficial mafias.
The Zuma-Gupta mafia predation resembles the earliest evolutionary manifestations of the mafia brotherhood in Italy. The three most common methodological objectives of any mafia-politico predatory interface are, namely:
* to subvert and exploit the rule of law solely to create illicit financial and material advantages for both the political elite and the mafia.
* to exempt the mafia bosses and their criminal associates from the apprehensive reach of the law enforcement agencies.
* to severely paralyse the efficacy and credibility of governance structures so that the mafia can become virtually untouchable and invincible.
Regrettably and thanks to the Zuma-Guptas predation, South Africa is currently exuding multiple chronic symptoms of a mafia state. And our supreme mafia godfather, Msholozi does not give a damn about what the nation thinks about his kleptocratic predatory manoeuvres.
Zuma and his plundering brigade may dabble in theatrical denialism and rejoice in duck-and-dive gimmicks, but they will never erase the truth that they have sold our country to the Gupta mafia.There is an English simile that says: “Every wandering dog has its day”. Hail to the brazen thieves!
* Elvis Masoga is a political analyst.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media