"Our observation is that killings are well-planned, carefully executed by highly trained individuals, and they are meant to destabilise South Africa, and the entry point is KZN." -- KwaZulu-Natal ANC secretary Super Zuma after the September 4 death of former ANC Youth League (ANCYL) secretary-general, Sindiso Magaqa, who sustained multiple gunshot wounds during a July 13 assassination attempt at Umzinkhulu.
Police Minister Fikile Mbalula tweeted he was "lost for words", while ANC presidential hopeful, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, declared KZN's bloodbath "unacceptable and unlawful", and suggested the SA Police Service's shambolic crime intelligence division should "develop more capacity".
From the sublime to the ridiculous and the downright disingenuous.
Journalists meanwhile ask for comment after each KZN hit -– connect the dots between Glebelands and the latest tragedy... As if there are serious investigations going on somewhere behind the colossal smokescreen that towers over South Africa's political landscape -- KZN being the eye of the storm, while in the stratosphere, government officials, opposition parties and anti-corruption NGOs wrestle over the details of state capture.
Yes, there are dots between Magaqa and Glebelands. The biggest "collection" to date was recorded at 14 of the 71 hostel blocks under thug control during a couple of weeks before the Umzimkhulu attack. R50 was reportedly forced from each poverty-stricken resident by gun-wielding thugs. And yes, sources claimed members of the local ANC branch executive committee met with the thugs and a couple of hitmen shortly before the collections were concluded four days before the attempted [now successful] hit, and that hitmen allegedly left immediately thereafter for Umzimkhulu.
But it's unlikely that the R220 000 plus extorted from residents paid for these assassins. The person who wants the target dead usually puts up the money and Glebelands residents have seen enough corpses to last eternity. Plus guns generally remove all freedom of choice.
So this money was obviously used for something else. To buy state issue guns perhaps? The SAPS confirmed that, "the attackers used an R1 rifle and a pistol". Well, everyone knows by now that Glebelands killers have, since 2014, been oversupplied with the official-issue -- among others -- makes of firearms by the infamous Durban Central rogue cop.
So these are the dots and they keep moving, merging, separating and diversifying like KZN's killers -– a political hit here, a little taxi violence there...
So it leaves us with the killers themselves. Obviously politically connected, it seems, sources claimed to recognise both individuals from identikits circulated by the Hawks, as part-time Block 48 residents who had not been seen in their rooms since the Umzimkhulu attack. But at Glebelands, criminals -- hitmen especially –- habitually move around and often have access to several rooms.
On August 26 rumours surfaced that those police officers had visited a Block 46 former peace committee member and reportedly "beat the s**t out of him –- he can't even pee without help". Although nominated by fellow thugs to the peace committee, this Block 46 resident allegedly retained ties with many of Glebelands killers and was apparently a loyal supporter of the politically connected warlord whose reign of terror and lead decimated the community until his murder in October 2015.
"He comes from Umzimkhulu, he has the contacts," the source added, "If he didn't actually do it, he almost certainly helped organise the Umzimkhulu attack."
So these are the dots and they keep moving, merging, separating and diversifying like KZN's killers -– a political hit here, a little taxi violence there, someone needs the competition to a lucrative government tender taken out –- dial #101GlebelandsHitmenAreUs.
Which brings us back to the staggering crap pouring from officials' mouths each time the state of the state becomes more lethal.
Under what rock exactly has the public been sleeping for the past few decades while every institution of accountability was quietly corrupted from within? (NOT by highly trained external elements penetrating our nation via the port province, but by personal greed for power, position and profit.)
No, Mrs Dlamini-Zuma, crime intelligence does not need to be strengthened, but removed altogether from factional political intrigues.
Did anyone really believe the assimilation of some of the most poisonous elements of the apartheid regime's security forces into a post-1994 police "service" would suddenly engender respect for human rights and ethical law enforcement? And it didn't help to pass over diligent officers and appoint criminal cadres from whatever ANC faction happened to be dominant at the time to top cop positions.
No, Dr Dlamini-Zuma, crime intelligence does not need to be strengthened, but removed altogether from factional political intrigues. The unit has become a threat to what could have been our "constitutional democracy" and a blessing for international organised crime syndicates.
For once, the Minister of Tweets has revealed uncharacteristic sincerity when he announced he was "lost for words" after the news of Magaqa's wasted life hit the headlines. How could he say anything else when it's obvious to anyone with half a brain that his department is a heaving mess of factional warfare and his own appointment hardly meritorious?
Public declarations that the SAPS "will NOT rest till we find" Magaqa's killers merely give cause for cynical laughter or unkind false hope to the few who still believe the function of the SAPS is to "serve and protect" and that everyone really is "equal before the law".
Super Zuma should not feign concern over "apartheid-style" third forces destabilising our country when our political leaders have already done a damn fine job of that by successfully unpicking most of the gains made over the past 23 years and selling the heart of our country to the highest bidder.
The bottom line is the ANC is busy eating itself and anyone who disturbs the feeding frenzy will become easy prey to our country's only employment sector that offers real growth -- contract killing. No need to connect any dots -- it's out there, in everybody's faces.
Proudly South African, anyone?