Allegedly present at the meeting at Zuma\u2019s official Cape Town residence were such paragons as Quinton \u201cMr Big\u201d Marinus and Igshaan Davids, said to be the leader of Cape Town\u2019s largest street gang, the Americans.<\/p>\n
The man said to have brought the parties together was Lloyd Hill, another underground figure from Durban with whom the Zuma family is understood to have a long association.<\/p>\n
It might be argued that the gangsters infiltrated, or were mistakenly included, in what was intended as a presidential encounter with prominent representatives of the coloured community. Also in attendance were Griqua royalty and religious leaders.<\/p>\n
But can Zuma really have been unaware of who he was dealing with and their unsavoury reputations? If so, either he and\/or his advisers have lost contact with the country that he and his party supposedly preside over.<\/p>\n
A quick internet search makes it clear that his guests that day have all repeatedly been at the centre of controversy. Marinus, described in media reports as the kingpin of South Africa\u2019s largest crime syndicate, has appeared in court on multiple charges of murder, robbery, fraud and abalone poaching \u2013 of which he was later acquitted.<\/p>\n
He was recently sequestrated by the revenue service for failing to pay R3.2-million in taxes and lost his luxury pad in Cape Town\u2019s upmarket Plattekloof.<\/p>\n
Davids was convicted of five crimes between 1989 and 2014, including culpable homicide, for which he received a seven-year jail sentence.<\/p>\n
As our lead story this week reports, Hill has also had serious brushes with the law, including being arrested on a murder charge that was later dropped after a potential state witness was strangled in prison.<\/p>\n
Apart from claims that the meeting discussed ways in which the gangsters could assist in the ANC\u2019s Western Cape election campaign \u00ac\u2013 a party-specific issue that has no bearing on the welfare of the coloured community or the country at large \u2013 Marinus is said to have raised his difficulties with the South African Revenue Service.<\/p>\n
One might expect South Africa\u2019s first citizen to stamp on any discussion of this matter \u2013 after all, the revenue service is supposed to be an independent agency. Instead, Zuma allegedly offered to \u201clook into\u201d it.<\/p>\n
There are also suggestions that \u201cbusiness opportunities\u201d were offered for electoral assistance and that the Gupta family may have been involved. The Guptas\u2019 spokesperson, Gary Naidoo, failed to answer questions this week.<\/p>\n
It appears that Zuma\u2019s son, Duduzane, was aware that the encounter might not be universally applauded if it leaked out \u2013 when the gangster\u2019s convoy arrived at the gates of the presidential residence, he is said to have instructed the security guards not to sign in the visitors. Neither he nor his father would comment, with the president\u2019s office dismissing the allegations as \u201cgossip\u201d.<\/p>\n
At issue is both Zuma\u2019s apparent willingness to bend the rules, visible in many other contexts, and the ANC\u2019s impotent outrage over the DA\u2019s majority support among the Western Cape\u2019s coloured voters.<\/p>\n
There have been repeated DA claims of dirty-tricks campaigns in the province, including the use of underworld connections. As next year\u2019s local elections approach, watch this space \u2026<\/p>\n
*This comment originally appeared as an editorial in the Mail & Guardian<\/em>.<\/p>\n * Got a tip-off for us about this story? Click here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n Can President Jacob Zuma really have been unaware of who he was dealing with and their unsavoury reputations when meeting with known gang bosses?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22730,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4256"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4256\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30770,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4256\/revisions\/30770"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/amabhungane.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/94x94.jpg\")
<\/a>The M&G<\/em> Centre for Investigative Journalism (amaBhungane) produced this story. All views are ours. See www.amabhungane.co.za <\/a> for our stories, activities and funding sources.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"