By Neelam Rahim

Spy-master Arthur Fraser who came out from the cold recently laid charges against President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Radio Islam speaks to the Director of Research at ASRI, Angelo Fick as to how serious the development is surrounding this case. Angelo says, “We need to remind ourselves who Arthur Fraser is; not only former intelligence chief but also the man who gave Former President, Jacob Zuma, medical parole which has since been declared unlawful by the courts. So much time has passed since the alleged events. Which questions, coincidence, correlation or cause that the chargers are laid just ahead of Ramaphosa’s bid for re-election of the ANC Presidency in December, especially given the tightening of NEC ‘step aside’ rule. This is a serious development because it is a symptom of the unresolved internal conflict inside the governing party. The Ramaphosa case will be resolved either way lawfully and shortly.”

Also making headlines this week, the Public Protector Advocate Mkhwebane coiled in a court finding against her, investigation into Ipid and Robert McBride, possible suspension and the alleged contact between an outsider and a justice or justices of the Constitutional Court suggesting misconduct. She is fighting for her professional career as parliament is formally investigating her and will start impeachment processes in July. The President is constitutionally empowered to suspend any Chapter 9 official who is undergoing that process. Adv Mkhwebane argues that because she investigating Cyril Ramaphosa, he cannot suspend her as it would constitute a conflict of interest, says Angelo.

Glencore embroiled in a global corruption scandal despite the massive international fines. There have been no South African equivalents on its operation here, and now former Eskom executive Brian Molefe has joined the call for the South African operations of Glencore to be investigated, including the relationship the company had with Cyril Ramaphosa, its then local empowerment partner.

Fick says. “Strange times but this is an election year in the governing party, and the internal divisions remain central to the conflicts. There is absolute merit to investigating multinational corporations to interrogate their role in corruption especially in relation to the ongoing crisis’s South Africans face because of state capture. South Africans must begin to realize how powerful multinational corporations have become since the turn of the millennium. Glencore’s responses about the fines and its guilty pleas, as well as ongoing investigations in the Netherlands and elsewhere, and the size of the fines paid in plea agreements, should alert everyone to the vast wealth which such corporations amass that they can easily afford these payments, and this must be noted against the massive inequality and poverty in the states in which these unlawful acts occurred.”