Winds of gossip fan flames of poison

I WRITE with mild curiosity and gentle interest but without prejudice. Whether fact, conjecture or scuttlebutt, any post on social media platforms spreads like fire at the click of a button.

The hungry public will swallow any hyperbolic nectar despite its poisonous essence. And so the winds of gossip fan the flames for whoever the intended recipient is – in this case Chatsworth attorney Nolan Naicker and two of his colleagues.

Lawyers are an integral component of society and the local community goes to them for advice, recourse, compensation and justice.

The latest incident involves what seems to be an aggrieved employee making damning allegations against her boss regarding alleged fraud at the Road Accident Fund (RAF) running into millions of rand.

The details in the post are intricate and incriminate other attorneys and state employees.

Whether apocryphal or not, this mare’s nest will cause irreparable damage to reputation in a pretty competitive market. In a crime and corruption infested South Africa, such a scheme is just the tip of the iceberg, crystallised from many more in the upper echelons of government.

The ability to attract strays and dummies – usually drug addicts – in such schemes is vital. Money-mongerers manipulate these bottom feeders, even at the cost of human life. And so the blood of the innocents are spilled.

There is talk of profligate living and breath-taking excesses. Many people gain legitimate wealth through hard work. However, it is a defining trait of society that a question mark will always hang over people’s wealth.

There will always be talk that “he must have an ANC contract”.

In this case, these events will irrevocably corroborate many people’s suspicions of how a “smalltime" Chatsworth lawyer got rich overnight.

Those who have suffered such smear campaigns will know what I am talking about.

This stonewaller has already created a deadly abyss of highly defamatory allegations.

Then we will see investigative prowess at its best, but only if there is substance in the claims, and not the whimsical fantasies of a disgruntled employee.