Alec Hogg: Gradually then suddenly – it happens with criminals, too
In The Sun Also Rises swashbuckling author Ernest Hemingway writes: "How did you go bankrupt?" followed by the often-quoted response…"Gradually, then suddenly." It's the same for criminal justice. No amount of vox populi screaming will hasten the "gradual" process. But similarly, not even an army of overpaid lawyers is able to stem the momentum once "suddenly" occurs.
After years of doing the heavy lifting by NPA chief Shamila Batohi and her team, SA is entering the "suddenly" stage. Last week saw high profile arrests of Free State tenderpreneurs closely linked to the ANC secretary general Ace Magashule. Yesterday the news broke that one Philip Truter, former CFO of heavily pillaged VBS Bank, has cut a deal that sends him to jail for an effective seven years.
Truter, who will provide a library of evidence, was acting rationally. Throughout the R1.9bn VBS fraud, the initial response from interviewed criminals has been denial (see below). But when investigator Adv Terry Motau explained to them how a section of the Financial Services Regulation Act gave immunity to turncoats, many VBS insiders changed their stories 180 degrees and 'fessed up
___STEADY_PAYWALL___