Floyd farce shows SA’s on the brink

The famous quote George’s from Orwell’s Animal Farm, about some animals being more equal than others has echoes every day in South Africa, where some well-connected men are more equal than others. It seems Joburg city manager Floyd Brink is one of those fortunate men… if the shenanigans outside his Roodepoort house yesterday are anything to go by.

A bunch of “heavies” in 13 cars – looking like plain clothes operatives from the Joburg Metro Police Department (JMPD) – prevented officials from the Sheriff of the Court from presenting Brink with a warrant of arrest.

It is true that the warrant was, like many things in this country, incompetently drawn up, with Brink’s name allegedly spelled incorrectly and his ID number recorded incorrectly. In addition, Brink’s allies pointed out that the Sheriff’s officials on their own have no powers of arrest and they should have been accompanied on such a mission by the SA Police Service.

However, given recent reports of tensions between JMPD and Saps, we shudder to think what might have happened had the officers in blue been present.

Mayor Kabelo Gwamanda claims that the papers should have been served on Brink at his municipal office, rather than at home, which, Gwamanda said, was clearly an attempt to intimidate the city manager.

It may well be probable that the media were present as part of a political ploy to publicly embarrass the city.

None of that, though, detracts from the fact Brink deliberately defied a court order that the city should restore electricity to a resident whose supply had been illegally cut after a long fight over idiotic billing.

Once a city official starts thumbing his nose at the law and brings in his own thugs to pervert the course of justice, then we are no longer heading for banana republic city status – we are already there.