The Story of Movers and Shaikers in South Africa

Mention the word Shaik to the average South African and an image of shadowy political operators insinuating themselves into the very fabric of South Africa's political elite emerges.
How did the Shaik brothers from middle-class Reservoir Hills, Durban, end up with massive influence in South African politics? They are well connected, are on every elite guest list and are close friends of deputy president Jacob Zuma. The family name has been splashed on newspaper front pages over the R66 billion arms deal and other political scandals.
They take centre stage in politics despite bad press which implies two of the brothers, Schabir and Shamin, known as Chippy, have hijacked the democratic process for their own ends. Of the brothers, it is Schabir who is at the heart of the scandals which are tearing the family apart.
In spite of these accusations, even the Scorpions don't have enough to nail the brothers on the arms deal.
It was claimed in a report two weeks ago that Schabir gave money to former transport minister Mac Maharaj. Zuma was also alleged to have received money from Schabir.
Questions are now being raised about this information which is in the possession of the Scorpions since they seized documentation from Schabir's office two years ago.
Second eldest brother Yunus, a lawyer and part time commissioner in the Commission for Conciliation and Mediation in Johannesburg, said: "Schabir was never questioned about this. Why is all this information being exposed now?"
He believes the claims about Schabir, chief director of Nkobi Holdings and director of African Defense Systems, one of the companies which benefited from the arms package as a sub-contractor, constitute a "firm intention to embarrass our family and never to prosecute".
The Scorpions are investigating a single charge against Schabir - contravention of the Protection of Information Act, relating to documents about the arms deal - a year after he obtained the tender.
Reeves Parsee, acting for Schabir, said: "My client faces a single charge with a maximum fine of R10 000. We challenge the constitutionality of the search warrant the Scorpions used to enter his premises. If the information links Schabir to corruption, why has he not been charged?"
Chippy, who was on the arms deal negotiating team, made no secret of the fact that his brother was involved in the arms industry. Third brother Mo, now special adviser to foreign affairs minister Nkosazana Zuma, was previously SA ambassador to Algeria. The youngest brother, Faizel, a businessman, and their sister, Rehana, are not involved in politics.
Said an ANC activist: "During the struggle days when things were hard and we had no money or nowhere to hide, you would turn to the Shaiks."
Mo, Chippy and Yunus were political activists. And it was their activism and networking in the ANC intelligence community that brought them closer to the political elite.
Schabir was streetwise, smart and a businessman who made sure the struggle gave him rewards.
"When exiles, such as Zuma, started returning, it was Schabir who integrated them," said the ageing activist.
"The Shaik brothers made their presence felt by helping ANC returnees, setting up companies for them. The rock was set and payback came after 1994."
It was their father Lambie Rasool Shaik (popularly known as Rasool), an upholsterer and shopsteward with the then Leather Worker's Union, who introduced the brothers to politics.
They formed the Mandla Judson Khuzwayo unit - and began building ANC support. Mo was the mastermind in the province's intelligence network. Frequently the brothers spent time in detention.
Maharaj and Ronnie Kasrils, minister of water affairs and forestry, were among those smuggled into the country by the Shaiks.
Now relatives are convinced the Shaiks are being used as pawns in a bigger game of political cat and mouse.
Mo claims "right-wing elements" are using state resources to embarrass the government and his family.
"They touched my family and that is OK. But now they have touched the deputy president that is not OK. Do you not think that if there was evidence after such a long investigation, they would have proceeded with the trial?
"Just as we did in the case of political detainees, we call on the Scorpions to prosecute or exonerate."
Yunus adds: "This time we are being embarrassed and money is tainting our name.
"Everything is being linked to the arms deal. Yes, there were payments Schabir made. He managed the finances of Zuma and other comrades. There is a fair explanation for everything. We are willing to co-operate for good governance. But we are being burnt at the stake.
"You will notice that every time a scandal breaks it happens just prior to an ANC congress," said Yunus.
Sipho Ngwema, the public face of the Scorpions and spokesman for the National Director of Public Prosecutions, said: "The probe continues."
With acknowledgements to Farhana Ismail, Marlan padayachee and Sunday Argus.

Take a Sho''t Left to Mandela's Country

Left of What's Right
By Marlan Padayachee
Take a Sho’t Left

Published in Juluka Magazine May 2008 Cover Price $4.25
A magazine embracing South Africa and her people


SOUTH Africa is still best-value-for-money holiday destination for foreign and local tourists, but they will have to take a Sho't Left to visit our revered statesman as he stands majestically in bronze overlooking the hordes of shoppers at the Sandton Square.
Sho't Left is the acronym for locals and overseas visitors to leave the motorways and take a sharp left to the beaten track to experience the sights and sounds of a fascinating landscape that criss-crosses the mountains, rolling green valleys, stretches of sun-baked beaches, flora and fauna and wild life.
Mandela in flesh is out of bounds for all and sundry. Only the high-rollers and the well-heeled icons of the world - like Richard Branson, Bill Gates, Beyonce and French President Nicola s Sarkozy and his new First Lady, former supermodel Carla Bruni, enjoy visitor's rights to Houghton home of the nation's founding father of democracy.
Mandela Square situated in the heartbeat of the nation's prestige shopping mall and financial capital and this cacophony of sounds and sights is a must-see for locals and foreigners. A spectacular bronze statue of Madiba stands tall as children play around the Old Man's iron-like legs and parents take turns with tiny digital cameras to capture this awesome spectacle.
To borrow an old phrase from the apartheid country, SA is still a land of milk and honey for a diverse mix of tourists clutching high-currency dollars, pounds, Euros and yens.
From eating succulent prawns with masala rice to whetting appetites with a classic repertoire of wines to reveling in casinos, this shopper's paradise where tourists strike bargains all the way to duty-free shopping and more wine and good cuisine on the jetliners that ferry them around the land of the beauty and the beasts.
Ahead of the FIFA 2010 World Cup Soccer, the nation is gearing up for the biggest influx of tourists since Mandela took the long walk to the Tuynhuys. Residents are transforming homes into bed-and-breakfast lodges. Townships are no longer no-go areas for foreigners. Wandi's, an African-styled eatery situated in the heart of Soweto near the homes of Mandela and Tutu, is a favourite haunt that dishes out mielie pap, samp and mutton curry and ice-cold, home-brewed Castle Lager beers.
Tourism, an important revenue earner next to gold and diamonds, is on the upswing as foreign embassies from Port Louis to Paris market the holiday landmarks and sight-seeing high spots, with Table Mountain reigning supreme and Robben Island ranking as a pilgrimage among most tourists keen to take a peek at Cell Number Five at our own Alcatraz.
The major cities – Johannesburg, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and Durban – are all preparing for the big influx of visitors and a strong flow of foreign currency.
South Africa's best showcase to the world market is through the window of opportunity presented annually by the Indaba, rated as one of the biggest tourism marketing events on the African calendar and one of the top three 'must visit' jamborees on the global calendar.
The who's who of international tourism and hospitality marketing, from the luxury Blue Train that snakes its way across the picturesque landscape from the Highveld to the Cape, to the Golf Estates tucked away among the vineyards, orchards and mountains, hold their way for a week in Durban.
Since the beginning of the year, thousands throng the grand prix of tourism, where they sample spectacular sights ranging from Bela Bela, to Thaba Chwe, the hub of tourism. Last year, 12,523 filed past the turnstiles at the Inkosi Albert Luthuli ICC. This year, almost 15 000 attended the Indaba Travel Expo in Durban.
Whether it’s God's Window or the beat of the Zulu dancers in the Valley of a Thousand Hills, or tucking into a mutton curry bunny chow on Durban's Golden Mile, the sky's limit when you take a Sho't Left. Maybe a stopover at Nyoni's Kraal for lunch in Cape Town's Long Street.
Marlan Padayachee is an independent freelance journalist and social and political commentator in Durban, where he runs GreenGold Africa Communications: greengold@telkomsa.net

The Day I Shook Mugabe's Hands

Left of What’s Right
By Marlan Padayachee
Marlan Padayachee is a freelance journalist and a media communications strategist and he writes in his personal capacity.
The day I shook Robert Mugabe’s hands and he acknowledged our struggle for democracy in South Africa I knew there was light at the end of the tunnel for a country divided by state-inspired racism, social injustices, economic imbalances and political crisis.
I was heading back to Africa via Munich after attending the United Nations Special Conference against Sports Apartheid in London, where I met President Mugabe’s Sports Minister who facilitated a visa from the Zimbabwe’s High Commission.
Mugabe had just entered the hall for the Zanu-PF Youth Rally in Harare when I met him, shook his hands in admiration of one of the region’s top guerilla leaders who led blood-stained and racist Rhodesia to uhuru in the 1980s. His charm offensive and warm tug in our hands told me he would stand by South Africa in its own quest for a post-Harare uhuru.
No-one who knows and benefited from liberation history will challenge Mugabe as one of the inspirational leaders of the brutal bush war. No-one can even challenge his academic track record as one of the most educated liberation leaders with more than six degrees to his credit.
But were many of us may depart from the point of dissent is that one of Africa’s most decorated leaders had overstayed his welcome. The rule of law has to kick in ahead of the June 27 president run-off with MDC candidate Morgan Tsvirangai. High level state tactics and violence had forced the MDC candidate to pull out of the race and seek refuge in the Dutch Embassy with the United Nations merely condemning the pre-poll violence and intimidation against dissidents.
But South Africa has been blowing hot and cold over Mugabe’s iron-fisted rule across the Limpopo River.
Beit Bridge as I knew it as a border crossing has changed dramatically in the past decade as thousands flee poverty, joblessness, lack of provisions and a diabolical currency that makes a joke of of the SADC’s fiscal system.
I returned a few more times to this new African model of a breadbasket with skyscrapers reflecting a new skyline of hope after years of a horrendous bush war that resulted in many Rhodesians seeking economic and social refuge and a better lifestyle in apartheid’s land of milk and honey.
But it was often difficult to put a finger on Harare-Pretoria relations as I witnessed a resentful Mugabe lose his badge of liberation status to Nelson Mandela who went on to marry the widow of another distinguished freedom fighter Samora Machel. Mugabe may have been cheesed off when our Old Man married Graca Machel. Then Mugabe gave President Thabo Mbeki a nasty diplomatic snub at an African Union assembly.
In my opinion, Mugabe will never hold a candle in front of Mandela, South Africa’s symbol of care, compassion and crusader for a culture of a cosmopolitan country, and now the subject of admiration on his 90th birthday as he sets the stage for a worldwide campaign against HIV-AIDS.
Before that the penny dropped when Mugabe was trumpeted into Mbeki’s presidential inauguration ceremony at the Union Buildings in 2004 when the huge crowd rose to their feet and roundly applauded the ever-green president-for-life, sending a mixed message to many despite having rigged elections since 2000 and bad-mouthing the MDC as capitalists’ stooges.
Hence, the Union Buildings quiet diplomacy to Harare and since then until the political and economic meltdown began eroding local jobs. Almost two decades later, Zimbabweans have become the new refugees heading down south and until recently among the highest casualties of the shocking xenophobic attack on foreigners.
The human drama continues in a country that once had as its tourist landmark the Zimbabwe Ruins.
Whether we like it or not, the presidential election across Beit Bridge affects all of us. We are dealing with a stubborn dictator chasing his sixth term, largely paranoid about being unseated by Downing Street and Pennsylvania Avenue rather than by a tough trade unionist that refuses to give up despite the shifting of goalposts.
Also envious about Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s halo in the world, Mugabe has rubbished our revered theological icon as an “irrelevant old bishop”. Tutu’s got no time for this ageing despot and has grave doubts about a free-and-fair election.
For beleaguered Mbeki, his rapprochement across Beit Bridge is a diplomatic foray of too little, too late while his possible successor, ANC president Jacob Zuma has bluntly dismissed a fair vote.
The June 16 celebration was followed by World Refugee’s Day with the United Nation’s High Commission for Refugees stating that the world’s exiled, homeless, persecuted, banned and banished people were numbering more than 12-million, and they ranged from Iraq, Afghanistan, Somali, Palestine and the Sudan.
Remember the days when carrying a UN refugee status passport was prestige?
It’s often dangerous to be insulated and act inwardly and think that we are only ones in the global village beset with the ordinary headaches of rising mortgage bond, fuel and electricity, food riots, racism and xenophobia.
Look left or right and maybe we need to digest some of the issues that are causing grief above our radar screen. The UN says five-million Zimbabweans face the risk of starvation as grain output tumbles due to bad weather, lack of seeds and fertiliser, fuel costs and poor grain prices for farmers; the US Government condemns Zimbabwe for seizing truckloads of American food aid that are dished out to Mugabe’s supporters.
So, we all have a vested interest in what’s happening across Beit Bridge, simply because the spillage, pilferage and spoils will affect our pockets.
As our home fires continue to burn with dissent and discontent, ANC Youth League President Julius Malema should reading and researching Roman political history and grasp how Caesar was knifed from office; and he will also find himself in the dock at the palace of justice if he does not apologise to an already nervous nation about his call to arms and murder if the judiciary does not let Zuma off the hook.
Until next week, take note of Richard Carlson’s “Remember to Acknowledge” verse: “You can acknowledge others in many ways. When someone calls you, acknowledge the call. When they send you something, remember to say thank you, or take the time to write a note. When someone does a good job, say so. When they apologise, acknowledge that too. It's especially important to acknowledge acts of kindness; doing so reinforces the act and encourages more of the same. We all benefit!”