DKB

Hello to you. I’m Dianne Kohler Barnard. Thank you for joining me for today’s edition of "The Editors". Three guests, as ever. We have, in Johannesburg, Phalane Motale, Editor of The Sunday Sun; with him is Hamilton Wende, author and freelance producer with the BBC, NBC and ABC and a lot more; and with me here in Durban is Thami Nqidi, Managing Editor of The Mercury.

Moving on to the three guests today we’ll start with your choices of what you believe to have been the top three stories of the past week. At this stage no explanations are necessary. Let’s begin with you, Phalane Motale.

PM

[No contact with Johannesburg studio for a few seconds – then Phalane came in as follows]

I personally feel that some of their (The Scorpions) successes are questionable, because somebody has said that, in most cases, we have realised that the publicity they get when they arrest a suspect is usually what gets into the paper but what happens to the particular cases just disappears. We also are looking at the problem between the National Commissioner, Selebi, and Ncguka’s office.

DKB

Phalane, looking at your lead one on the Scorpions. Now, Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula has denied that the Scorpions are even under review. Do you question that?

PM

No, I don’t question that, especially if one considers that… I’ve already said it earlier. The Scorpions unit – is it necessary? And the answer is definitely yes. And I think what the cops are doing now… Actually, what the Scorpions are doing can never be done by the police. Because I think we all know that our cops are already having problems, especially coming to the detective services. Most of the experienced guys have left. And I think if they leave the Scorpions, as they are, to do what they’re doing now it’s in the interests of our country.

DKB

What do you think about the suggestion on the part of the President that, in fact, the Scorpions may fall under the police?

PM

That wouldn’t be a good idea. We know the rate of corruption within the police. Already I think they’ve got rid of the Anti-Corruption Unit which, to a certain extent, I think was disbanded because of the corruption within it. So what I’d say is if they can leave the Scorpions as they are… Because they already create a lot of fear in the criminal sector.

TN

And I think, just to add to what Phalane has said, maybe there might actually be a relationship… This is the suggestion of the story that appeared in Mail & Guardian yesterday… A link – tenuous, perhaps – but a link between that and the probe into the Deputy President. And the story, I think, suggests that… Well, it quotes several ANC sources, presumably people who were at Luthuli House, suggesting that Bulelani Ncguka might have put himself in the position he’s in now because he broke an unwritten rule of the ANC which says if you want to probe a figure at the top – somebody like the Deputy President or the President – you don’t do it without informing them. In other words, it is not an ordinary person. But this is within the ANC and not in the general sphere of the public.

DKB

There’s an interesting editorial by Dumisani Hlope in The Times this morning along the lines that a common political weakness in the run-up to the elections is one-dimensional thinking, that virtually all political events tend to be explained by linking them to electioneering. He cites the situation of Deputy President Jacob Zuma with one theory assuming an ethnic tag that alleges this is all a Xhosa conspiracy within the ANC to keep the leadership within amaXhosa, and that Zuma is, of course, Zulu. Then there is also the belief that President Thabo Mbeki intends to serve a third term, and without Zulu that would then justify that. A lot of theories and conspiracies. A lot of hot air going around, as ever, before an election.

TN

I think the issue of a third term, close to the elections… It comes up now and again. But the constitutional requirement is that a party that wants to change the Constitution, for whatever reason… This is, I think, the condition upon which the President – in this case, Thabo Mbeki – would have to go for a third term. They would have to have the Constitution changed and it would take a very clear majority to do that. But I don’t know that it would happen. Yet it’s a fear that people have.

PM

Thami, coming to that conclusion, or theory, that the President could maybe go for another term… The elections may be next year but Mbeki is still going to be there for a few years.

HW

Yes, I agree. I think it’s much too early to have conspiracy theories about a third term at this point.

TN

I don’t know if I buy into that theory but if you look at the Deputy President, the assumption that a Deputy President post-2004 elections…

PM

Whatever you get during the elections will determine where you go.

DKB

One of the stories that none of you have raised is the leader in The Sunday Tribune today which stole a march on The Sunday Times, for a change, this week with the headline Maharaj bails out. The multi-billion-rand arms deal seems to have claimed its most prominent casualty thus far. Now, Mac Maharaj is apparently going to resign – they quote his wife on this one – from the board of financial giant First Rand this coming week. Rather a cloud – and that cloud, they say, is the one also threatening to end the career of Deputy President, Jacob Zuma. His wife has revealed that he, as First Rand’s highest paid non-executive director, has taken the decision to resign because of the embarrassment to both the bank and the shareholders in that matter. An interesting story, and one that will obviously be certain to take a lot of headlines next week.

DKB

Yes, that’s going to take the headlines. And a countdown till September?

TN

And also the arms deal.

DKB

Arms deal – that’ll be another one in the headlines.

And with that I’m Dianne Kohler Barnard saying good-bye to you for today.

With acknowledgements to Dianne Kohler Barnard, Phalane Motale, Hamilton Wende, Thami Nqidi and SAFM.