Social media went “lit” on the “great confessions” of former MP Vytjie Mentor. She dropped a “bombshell” this week, boldly claiming that she was offered a ministerial job at the house of the Gupta family.
Already most online publications linked to private business carried the story and similarly, known pro-white capital opinion makers such as Prof Pierre de Vos, veteran journalist Max Du Preez and others have been celebrating what amounts to finally having the proverbial “smoking gun” to support their untenable theory of “state capture” by the Gupta family.
This theory has been carefully hatched by the global white capital propaganda machine such as the Financial Times, Bloomberg, The Economist, Independent of UK, New York Times and locally taken up first by the EFF whose deputy president went further than most after their London trip and declared the Guptas “colonialists”.
In London the EFF met among others the representatives of global capital and known coup plotters and regime change agents for the British crown such as the notorious obscenely wealthy Lord Robin Renwick.
The most important meeting was held under the secretive Chatham House Rule.
The “state capture” theory has been repeated religiously without any basis by local pro-white capital publications.
When the Financial Times (FT) intimated that there was some offer to Deputy Finance Minister Mcebisi Jonas for the coveted post of Finance Minster, by Sunday all the pro-white capital publications running the anti Gupta campaign had repeated the story as fact that needed no checking or verifying.
The Sunday Times relied entirely on the account of faceless sources to confirm the claims of the Financial Times. Not a single source was found to speak on record.
The Daily Maverick was more forthcoming on the fact that it believes the FT story to be credible not because it has evidence but because it trusts the FT based on its “reputation”.
The media has dropped the standard of evidence so low that we can conclude misinformation has become the creed of the trade.
We shall leave aside the real big story that never made it to the front pages or anywhere in the media.
Everyone in the media knows that Piet Rampedi of the Sunday Times has resigned under troubling circumstances.
There is talk of an explosive resignation letter which exposes how people purporting to represent Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan, have made presentations to the Sunday Times to abandon the appeal it has lodged against the ruling of the Ombudsman on its SARS rogue unit story.
On the side of Rampedi, the disputed KPMG report on the unit has come out now confirming all the claims their story relied on but rejected mysteriously by the Ombudsman. Right now the gloves are off so objectivity is suspended.
The main campaign is so impatient to get rid of the Guptas that by Monday the Financial Mail (FM) was calling for a coup against President Jacob Zuma because of this perceived association with the Gupta family. Yes a coup!
The FM editorial was clear that Zuma must go and not by democratic legal means but by other means.
The rage of white capital against the Guptas and the elaborate scheme to take them out of competition seem confirmed by the London trip of Gordhan.
There are unconfirmed reports that when he toured London to account to the markets, which have literally demanded that he be given the job, among the men of global white capitalism he met was Lord Renwick or his representatives.
If this is true then it would explain the great interest in Eskom.
This goes back to white capital’s unhappiness with the Gupta family, more so after the take over of the Glencore owned Optimum Coal Mine.
Lord Renwick has deep pockets and interests in the energy sector. It would not be surprising if Eskom is privatised partially or wholly and companies linked to Renwick pick up some stakes in it.
The media is not going to ask these questions because it is not after the truth.
It is instead manufacturing its own facts to suit its propaganda about its theory of “state capture”. The simple fact is that the SA state is already captured by white capital.
This explains why the “markets” demanded and were given a Minister of Finance that they wanted. The rating agencies are the whips they use to beat the state into line.
Anyway, here are some of the questions that Mentor should answer as soon as she has some time after her holiday. It is unfortunate that she had to break her silence while on vacation.
Firstly, why has she kept quite about a matter as grave as this for this long? Secondly, why has she not opened a case of corruption against the Gupta family who she claims offered her a ministerial post?
Thirdly, why confess to a DA member and not to the relevant authorities? Fourthly, what was she doing at the Gupta family home?
(Doesn’t she say they are corrupt?). Fifth, who invited her to Saxonworld? Sixth, since she is a senior member of the ANC, has she complained to her organisation at least?
Seventh does she believe that Zuma, who was according to her in the other room, was aware of what was said between her and Guptas?
Eighth and most importantly, does she stand by her Facebook comments? Andile Mngxitama is the national convenor of then group Black First Land First.
Andile Mngxitama
The Guardian 