It’s halftime in good guys v lamebrains

WELL, we’ll have to wait a little. The High Court in Pretoria and the (now former) public protector, Thuli Madonsela, agreed on Friday that her report on state capture, interdicted by President Jacob Zuma and Local Government Minister Des van Rooyen, would be preserved and argument on its publication will be heard on November 1, a day before Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan steps into the same court building to face spurious fraud charges.

This is not over yet. Madonsela, backed into a corner by the interdicts, made the only decision she could in the circumstances and signed it off as a final report and not an interim one, as had been her intention. That is good and bad. It’s bad because it is probably incomplete. It’s good because should the interdicts fail — and they should, on manifest grounds of public interest — the court can order that the report be published by the public protector.

For Madonsela’s successor, Busisiwe Mkhwebane, that could be a blessing in disguise, depending on whether she’s a Zuma ally or not. If she is, she’d simply have to do as she’s told and Zuma would have no room to pressure her. If she isn’t, publication would not be a problem. The only risk would be to Madonsela’s reputation if the published report is substandard.

Simply by driving as hard as she did, up to her final day at work, Madonsela did us all a favour. We know the Zuptas are really, but really, nervous about the contents of the report. Not because she has got something wrong, but because of what she will have got right. Why else the interdicts and the threatening letter (that she would publish the report “at your peril”) from Ajay Gupta?

What “peril” could he mean? Death? Harassment? Litigation? It is an extraordinary threat from a so-called ordinary citizen to an officer of the law. Who do these people think they are?

The juiciest moment of a dramatic day on Friday was a BBC report, not denied, that Van Rooyen, named new finance minister last December 9 when Zuma fired Nhlanhla Nene, had had tea with the Guptas at their Johannesburg home the day before. The BBC story referred to cellphone records as Madonsela’s source.

I’ve said it so many times, but there is no more obvious evidence that Zuma is himself the prisoner of the lamebrains he surrounds himself with than the fact that Van Rooyen, in his interdict, repeated what Madonsela said about him in the parts of the report she had shown him.

So at least that one is settled. The Guptas are in state capture up to their necks, if the BBC report is accurate.

What I really want to know is what the National Treasury told Madonsela. They would have tracked deals and the flows of money into and out of the country and it will be in the report too. We are just one judge, Judge Dawie Fourie, away from knowing it all. I hope he does his duty by South Africa on November 1.

Zuma spent the weekend at a Brics summit in Goa, India. He will return only slightly relieved by the events in Pretoria on Friday. And he will find a somewhat changed political landscape when he lands.

First off, Mkhwebane said on Friday she would make Madonsela’s report a “priority” when she starts work tomorrow. Whether that priority is to bury it or publish it remains to be seen. Zuma will be especially keen to know which. Second, the ANC, Zuma’s first love if we still believe a thing he says, says it is dead keen on seeing the report published. “The ANC . . . looks forward to the imminent release of the state capture report,” spokesman Zizi Kodwa said.

And then there’s a growing, almost heaving, mass of ANC heavyweights, top six party leaders, the opposition and just about every man and his dog queueing up to stand in solidarity outside the same court on November 2 when Gordhan is arraigned.

Zuma’s other lamebrain, National Prosecuting Authority head Shaun Abrahams, was neatly told where to get off by Gordhan on Friday. Gordhan, magnanimously “offered” an opportunity to request of him, Abrahams, a review of the charges (in the wake of clear evidence that the charges have no chance of succeeding), politely declined.

Why not? A November 2 victory for the good guys is almost certain and who would want to pass up an opportunity like that?

Zuma will find a somewhat changed political landscape when he lands