After the soapie-like shenanigans of the President’s sister-in-law seven months ago, Bridgette Motsepe-Radebe is hitting the headlines once again as she plays ducks and drakes with the Hawks. Unlike Isidingo, this soapie looks to run and run.
Just in time to take some of the spotlight off the State of the Nation Address, it is reported that she is avoiding answering questions into her latest money-laundering scandal in Botswana.
In July last year, a $10 billion case linking her to the Minister of State Security, an affair, a coup and Botswana had South Africans snorting into their coffee.
It was clear that the President was the one who sent this country’s State Security Minister to Botswana to try and strong-arm their President into dropping charges of money laundering and the financing of a coup attempt against Motsepe-Radebe.
One would have thought, considering the seven billion rand revelations at the Zondo Commission, which she failed to silence, that the Minister of State Security had far more pressing issues to deal with than this messy business.
Motsepe-Radebe has gone to ground and is pretending that the raft of questions from the Hawks into this latest allegation, simply need no response. If you or I had treated this unit with such contempt, I have no doubt we would be viewing the bars of a cell from the nasty side.
The latest allegation is that she used her mining company, Mmakau Mining, to launder R3 million-odd from South Africa to Botswana. Chicken feed compared to last charges of $10 billion, but serious nonetheless.
Let us be clear. No one, no matter who one’s relatives are, is above the law. It is not for Motsepe-Radebe to determine that this should be ‘dealt with diplomatically’. Who exactly does she think she is?
The latest claim is that the R3 million was used to fund the political campaign of one Pelonomi Venton-Moitoi, who tried to unseat the sitting president in 2018. The claim is that between 30 November 2018 and 22 March 2019 she transferred six tranches of just under R3 million to a company known as Avante Security Services.
Last year, the latest Minister of State Security, Ayanda Dlodlo, flew (literally and figuratively) to her rescue – but of course this Minister is not paid to protect individual citizens from criminal charges in foreign lands. She should be focusing 24/7 on cleaning out those guilty of looting in her department in order to protect Jacob Zuma and enrich themselves on the way. Her job is not to sail to the rescue of the President’s recalcitrant relatives.
Two months later after the $10 billion case in July, Motsepe-Radebe had paid for an investigation which proceeded to clear her name and that of her close friend former President Ian Khama, and which claimed the investigation report from Botswana was incorrect.
Today the Hawks are investigating the R3 million in transfers to Botswana.
We know the President was in charge of the ANC’s Cadre Deployment Committee, but this is a step too far. Using a Minister to try and protect one’s sister-in-law, then sitting on your hands and looking the other way when she ignores the questions of the very entity the ANC created to replace the Scorpions, is a disgusting abuse of power.