Chris Steyn (00:01.198)

Skeletons are tumbling out of cupboards all over the place. And the question now is who will be arrested next? With me is political commentator, Solly Moeng. Welcome, Solly

Solly Moeng (00:14.931)

Hello, Chris. Lovely to see you again.

Chris Steyn (00:17.742)

Thank you. The new cycle feels more like a battering ram at the moment, Solly

Solly Moeng (00:24.101)

It's like a huge bucket with so many holes. I don't know which one we need to be plugging first. It's like layered and pouring from all directions.

Chris Steyn (00:34.742)

And so many nuances in some of these stories and so many levels and so many agendas that are now emerging.

Let us go to the seizure of the devices of Special Leave Minister Senzo Mchunu.. This is the second time his devices have been taken from him. And these devices must be new ones because as far as I know, his previous seized devices have not been returned to him.

Solly Moeng (01:07.485)

Yeah, that's correct. They first went to his home, I think it was in October last year, they took his devices, as you say, and they were never returned. So it's very clear this time that they're very specific about what they're looking for. They're not just on a fishing expedition. This is a judiciary-led process. They were very specific about which devices they want to take from him. They're obviously very clear about more or less what they're looking for in terms of the communications between him and other people, you know, the tracing of monies, possible fraud and you know…

I don't think that they're just doing this as a thumbsuck. So something is going to come out of this and I really hope that whatever comes out of it will help them close the loop between the Lieutenant General Mkhwanazi’s original statement to the people of South Africa and everything that we've seen come out over the months.

Chris Steyn (02:04.11)

He says he handed his devices over voluntarily. Well, I don't know what that means. They didn't have to tackle him and wrestle him for them. But I don't think he had a choice.

Solly Moeng (02:13.906)

No, of course he didn't have a choice. I mean like look, I mean this man is one of the most privileged suspects in contemporary South Africa. He's sitting at home. This has been like fourteen months now and the president has no worry. His name has been mentioned and he is the core source or originator, genesis of everything that we've seen going, you know, that we've gone through over the past fourteen months. And he's sitting nicely at home, he's earning his salary. He's getting all these privileges and what's that now? He doesn't have a choice.

Of course he owes South Africa answers. Actually he should be resigning. I mean it's really painful that Ramaphosa still seems unable to say, Look, given everything else, we need to to get you to not only step aside, but fire you really. If your name gets cleared. If your name gets cleared, we'll deploy you somewhere else.

But then by the time that happens, maybe Ramaphosa will not be the leader of the ANC because his own days as leader of the ANC are numbered.

Chris Steyn (03:22.222)

So he's just playing for time.

Solly Moeng (03:25.606)

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, maybe he will so that he can hopefully walk into his retirement with all the privileges of the position.

Chris Steyn (03:38.68)

So the big news yesterday was the appearance in court of suspended Deputy National Commissioner Shadrack Sabiya facing charges of rape, sexual grooming, and human trafficking.

Solly Moeng (03:54.587)

Yeah. This is very funny, isn't it? I mean, given everything else that has been happening around him, he's appeared at the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry. He knows that people, the world are watching him. It's not like these things happened like five, six years ago. They happen now, recently.

Why in the world would a man of his age be sleeping with girls of sixteen years old and grooming them, taking them, giving them alcohol and stuff to weaken their senses and…I mean of course these are still accusations at this stage, allegations. He has not been convicted of them, but all the indications are pointing in a very, very disturbing direction, especially given the position that he occupies in the criminal justice system.

Chris Steyn (04:43.919)

And in a strip club on a Monday.

Solly Moeng (04:47.346)

I don't know what life these people live. I mean, I'm sure he has a big home. Maybe he's married…He wouldn't want to take this girl to his home. But why who goes to a strip club on Monday? I thought these places open on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, after a long week, but these people have a different life. I mean I don't go to those places. I can tell you that I don't go to those places precisely because I would never want to be seen photographed coming out of them.

Now this is a senior man, the world is watching him for all the other things that he's said to have done wrong. And he decides to take a child to a strip club on a Monday where there are pictures of somebody seeing him, taking pictures of him…. Anything could go wrong. I mean like but yeah.

Chris Steyn (05:32.335)

I think those cases go back further, not to Monday. He was just arrested there.

Solly Moeng (05:40.911)

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, definitely. I mean I don't think that this was the first time that he went there.

But still over the past year or so the Madlanga Commission has been happening. If I were him, I would just... lie low. But he's definitely not lying low. He believes something is going to happen to save him. Or maybe he thought, you know, these are the last days I might have freedom, so I might as well do the best I can while I'm still out. I don't know what goes on in the minds of people like him. I really don't.

Chris Steyn (06:09.815)

Another sensational arrest of a person with an ultra luxury lifestyle, the wife of tenderpreneur and attempted murder accused Cat Matlala

Solly Moeng (06:19.43)

Yeah. Yeah. I think that was going to happen at some point because look, it's almost like these charges they're facing… Each one of them comes with his own file. She's in court with him already, we know, for the attempted murder of his ex, but he also still needs to face the charges relating to the Madlanga Commission, the monies, the Tembisa tenders and all that. And she has been, you know, alongside him. So I think it's not too shocking that she would have facilitated some of the payments, and so maybe to ease the pressure off him.

But look, they are under scrutiny. It's a good thing. It's a good thing that these people are beginning to see that there are always consequences for these things. This is what South Africans want. They want to know that there are consequences.

Chris Steyn (07:16.963)

This arrest was in connection, apparently, with R95,000-a-month Waterkloof lease. And apparently, when the two of them were going around viewing luxury properties in Gauteng, he pretended at some point to be a Swazi prince, Cat the Prince of Eswatini.

Solly Moeng (07:37.139)

Yeah, I mean we shouldn't be too surprised by that. I think that this other gentleman who's been denied bail, I think has also been pointing out different homes, different addresses; about five addresses is given to the courts to the point where they're saying no, no, no, no. I think one of the places that he pointed to at some point was Swaziland. So there's something about Swaziland and South Africa. This border seems to be allowing a lot of stuff to go in and and back from back to and fro between South Africa and Swaziland.

But look, they come up. In the end these things come up as they are coming out now. It's just a matter of time all the time. And I'm very happy that the truth is coming out, that this man has been lying. What we're seeing is just a small tip of the iceberg. There's a lot more that's coming up.

Chris Steyn (08:27.575)

And last month, she was seen driving R8 million Rolls Royce.

Solly Moeng (08:34.17)

Look, the truth, Chris, is that a lot of the money in question can be some money… tenders are big money …Ekurhuleni - and so we still don't know where that money has gone to.

The only assets that have been taken that I'm aware of are the Maumela one. This Maumela…who has not been called to account at the commission. I don't know why this man is still not being called. But all this money is obviously hidden in assets in cars, in homes, God knows where else.

But I trust now that the criminal justice system that is the part of it that is still functioning, the SIU and and and others are slowly, slowly getting to the places where these funds are laundered and that there will be consequences. Especially remember we had a conversation about, you know, luxury car sales people or sales, you know, companies who take money, but they keep the cars so that these people who supposedly own the cars don't really own them legally. They can come in and take them for a ride from time to time. They return them to these facilities. I think there's got to be more light also shown into those luxury car dealerships to see what is really going on. Who owns the cars that are on their shop floors, who gets to drive them from time to time. 'Cause that's how a lot of stolen money gets hidden.

Chris Steyn (09:59.183)

I'd love to know where Maumela is. I mean, he's been hit with a R1.9 billion tax bill in addition to forfeiting luxury vehicles, et cetera, but no arrest.

Solly Moeng (10:09.798)

Yeah. It doesn't make sense. It doesn't make sense that SARS is acting, but the police are not acting. This guy's name has been mentioned so many times. I mean it's very disturbing that it been said over and over again that he is related to the president, at least distantly. The president knows him. The president said it by saying, Yeah, I don't know this man and then proof was shown that actually he knows this man. Right? So is he being protected by his proximity to the president? If nothing happens to him, you cannot blame South Africans for suspecting that it is because he is connected to the highest office in the land that nothing is happening to him.

And I think that the Madlanga Commission must do itself a favour and at least invite him for an interview. Okay? Because there's no way that they can finish and write their report and not call Maumela to at least say to them, look, I see my name has been mentioned in some of your conversations and some of the testimony, let me give my side of the story. Same thing with Malema. Otherwise then you know what is going on here?

Chris Steyn (11:19.449)

Talking about the commission, what do you make of the latest testimony?

Solly Moeng (11:24.934)

The taxi driver, the taxi boss. And now I see this morning the other one was meant to appear, is playing games… not to appear. Look, all the SMS is that were exposed, the discussion about inkabis and owning the streets and… somebody has died.

So look, it's…not shocking, you know, that these things are coming out. These are the guys who own the streets. I think they're telling the truth when they say we own the streets. They're telling the truth when they say you don't have to worry about so and so ... .We know that inkabi are people who are paid money to go and kill other people.

So you know, one way or another, they have to be put in a position where the truth comes out in a court of law and that they pay. And that we get to know where the corpses have been buried. Because I think it's very, very likely that there are many corpses who have been buried throughout South Africa whose identity we don't know. People who've just disappeared. And suddenly as things are coming out in these SMSes. And hopefully they will lead to those… shallow graves wherever they are located around the country. It's terrible.

It's really terrible. It's like a whole soap opera, the whole thing. Right. We’re caught up in wow, wow, wow, what is all this stuff? But the truth is that it's actually this country that has been pained, that has been captured. The…key institutions in the criminal justice system have been captured, have been used and been repurposed to protect and to enhance the interest of the criminal underworld. This is what's coming out. And what we are seeing is really just a tip of the iceberg.

Chris Steyn (13:30.191)

I want to take you back to the Spartheid era briefly. Solly, the Freedom Front plus this mayoral candidate for Nelson Mandela Bay, Bill Harrington, served a lengthy prison sentence for the murder of an African National Congress activist. Do you think he is suitable to be a mayor of one of South Africa's biggest cities?

Solly Moeng (13:57.445)

Well, if he served his term in reality and just like Gayton McKenzie served his term in prison for robbery now he's serving as a minister in government. If this man has served his term, I don't see why he cannot be allowed to come in.

But it seems like there are lots of discrepancies in the story. I know that he claims to have been trained to look at the ANC as the enemy, which would have been the case in the past. But the murder of this young man was not accepted by the TRC as a political act. It was seen as, you know, rogue officials who decided to kill somebody in order to stop them from… to destroy evidence of having committed a murder.

And it doesn't make sense also that he's said to have thrown away a pocket book that would have contained the evidence of the activities of this man. It doesn't make sense that he would not even have shown it to his colleagues. So basically he's saying, Yeah, I saw the pocketbook, this is what's in there, but I decided to throw it out the car window. Why didn't he show it to them?

So…his story has got too many homes, but I think that in the end, like with any other story, if the law says he can stand as a candidate, I think you should stand as a candidate, but the truth must be out so that the people who are going to vote for him and his party, you know, make decisions that are informed.

Chris Steyn (15:26.189)

Internationally, how would you encapsulate the state of relations between South Africa and the United States?

Solly Moeng (15:36.153)

I was beginning to think that with Roelf Meyer representing us we'd be in a much better place: an aging white African man representing this country. I mean, they have not kicked him out of the US, but it seems like he's not good enough. For them he's not good enough. Now Bozell is saying he didn't really come up with it. Somebody said, Well, maybe in an interview, somebody said, Well what about Mbeki? I don't know why they threw Mbeki into that conversation…Maybe he would be effective. I don't know why they think that way. Mbeki is the master of quiet diplomacy and defending the indefensible… in any case, I don't see Trump agreeing to any one of his predecessors coming in to save him in a current discussion with any other party that America is in communication with today. So why wouldn't Mbeki be the person to break the ice in America.

I think that Trump and his administration are pretty much clear. They have that list of five things that they want South Africa to respond to. Ramaposa has written to them to say, okay, this is what we're doing here, this is what we're doing here, this is what we're doing here, but it's still not good enough.

I still stand with South Africa at a high level that we shouldn't be having Trump determining South African policies. I don't think we should let him or anybody else do that. But I do think that the world must question us and as they are. And not everything that we do is defensible, but it's not up to Trump to say to South Africa, you must have this policy…

…and in any case a lot of the accusations that have been thrown at South Africa are false…for instance the main one about white genocide, which we know is not happening, there's no such thing as white genocide.

But we do have to have a conversation, a South African conversation, not one that is driven by anybody else outside about the impact of race based policies or what we call BEE laws. What impact are they having on South Africans who are not black? I think we should have that conversation. We cannot lie. There are many people who've left this country who've been denied opportunities at universities, at jobs and you know, procurement situations because they don't have the right skin colour. We cannot…

Solly Moeng (17:54.973)

…deny those things are happening. So we South Africans have to have those conversations. How long do we keep going? Does it still make sense thirty two years later? Is there another criteria that we should be looking at to help every South African child become part of building this economy, contributing to this economy, and also seeing themselves reflected in the leadership of this country? We should have those conversations.

So it's important that in pushing back against Trump, we don't fall into this false sense of patriotism that only protects the political leadership that we currently have dominating South Africa against the best interest of what South Africa could be. It's a very nuanced situation. You are either with Trump or you are against us. It shouldn't be that. It should be what kind of South Africa do we want and and and do you want to sort it out, Trump or not Trump? But we must have those conversations.

Chris Steyn (18:55.407)

Talking about BEE, that brings to mind the abuse of it by foreigners, not least of all the man who threatened to kill women in the powder room of a Sandton restaurant last week, Sorry..

Solly Moeng (19:12.05)

That is incredible. I mean that was so incredible. Given everything that's happening, both that story and the story of this man who's been arrested now for grooming children. This is Women's Month, is it Women's Month? And we have the stories of those women who were killed by what seems to be a serial killer in Ekurhuleni and part of Kempton Park. And now we have this man who's a foreigner who, now it comes out, has benefited massively from BEE laws, benefits as a black person but not from South Africa. Behaving with the arrogance that we've seen him display even without even giving a care that somebody was filming….

I think it's important that BEE laws are clarified, Chris. Okay. BEE laws were meant to help black South Africans, not any black black South Africans who grew up and were restricted by apartheid from from realising their potential. The minute you start having blacks from anywhere else, whether it's Zimbabwe or Botswana or America coming here to jump the queue ahead of non black South Africans, it cannot be right. This is not meant to say every black man, anybody can just come in here and take over and benefit from BEE…;people who are not South Africans who are black should not be benefiting from BEE, otherwise it defeats the purpose.

And it seems like some of these people are linked to, especially when it comes to multi-million Rand multi-dollar, multi-million dollar projects, they are linked to some powerful politicians. If you dig deeper into these multi million rand contracts, you're going to find that nobody just gets it. Solly Moeng or you, an ordinary person doesn't get that sort of thing. It comes with political ties, somebody benefits from it. I think we need to dig further into who this guy is linked with. And who is benefiting, who has facilitated him getting all these deals with the State institutions.

I'm not saying business people from outside should not benefit from South Africa, but they should not benefit from BEE. If that's the case, then something is wrong. We know a lot is wrong anyway.

Chris Steyn (21:23.823)

I'm going to unleash you now for your rant of the week. I'm bracing myself.

Solly Moeng (21:28.406)

You know what really frustrated me? I was in a meeting with somebody, a senior government official who's been in government senior level for a long time and I asked her, How do you stay here without having to do some wrong thing, like you know, pay politicians or give tenders to the wrong people? You know what she said to me? Solly, the art of surviving a senior position in government is to make sure they also eat.

I almost fell out of my chair. Basically, you have to say, Okay, this is my budget. I'm going to take, they tell me, anyway, only I negotiate with them. Ten, fifteen percent of whatever money that's allocated for my work must go to the people they designate. Because if I don't do that, the people who don't do that are the ones who don't succeed. Right? So the cancer is in the system.

Have you enabled _ and I'm asking South Africans who are in senior positions in government SOEs - have you looked the other way? Have you signed a document that you know you shouldn't have signed because you wanted to skip your job? Because… if you didn't sign it, somebody else would be brought into your job. And people if you are acting, especially you know, it came out last week also in the Mdllanga Commission by Professor Fikene, many people are placed in senior acting positions because those positions are vulnerable. They could call you any minute. And in the middle of the night to say, you know what? Thank you, bro, or thank you, sister. We don't need you anymore. Don't come tomorrow. Because you refuse to sign a document, because you refuse to look the other way.

So we need to have serious conversations, each one of us who are benefiting from living in nice houses and driving nice cars, taking our kids to posh schools. Are you in the position because you decided I don't wanna be in trouble? I don't want to lose my job. So I'm going to sign that document. So to what extent is each one of us contributing to the rot that this country has become?

That's my rant. How do we stop it? How do we stop it at each personal level without waiting to be exposed in you know on social media, in the media? How do we change the culture? How do we buffer civil service from toxic influence…

Solly Moeng (23:50.246)

…by people in politics. It also came from Professor Fikeni in his testimony. We can't just have conversations, be outraged for a week and then move on to something else. We need to say what kind of checks and balances do we need to protect this democracy?

Chris Steyn (24:10.681)

Thank you. That was political commentator Solly Moeng speaking to BizNews. I'm Chris Steyn. Thank you, Sollly

Solly Moeng (24:19.014)

Thank you, Chris

Mchunu, Mrs Matlala, Maumela, Mudzinganyama - and Meyer… | Solly Moeng