It has been said that it wasn't the Watergate scandal as such that brought former US president Richard Nixon to a fall, but his attempts to cover up the scandal.
I thought about this as I read former spy boss Arthur Fraser's astonishing affidavit over the weekend, in which he accuses President Cyril Ramaphosa of money laundering, corruption and kidnapping.
The story sounds almost fantastical and, to be fair to Ramaphosa, at this stage it is still only Fraser's version under oath that is known. But the fact that Fraser stated his version under oath (you go to jail if you lie under oath), and that the details were clearly leaked from within Ramaphosa's protection unit, means we can and should view it in a serious light.
I have read Fraser's affidavit. Three times. And every time I came back to paragraph 13.29.
"Major General [Wally] Rhoode and his team, on the instruction of President Ramaphosa, paid Mr Shaumbwako, Mr Muhekeni, Mr Shikongo, Mr David and Mr Afrikaner R150 000 each in cash to conceal the events that took place at Phala Phala on 9 February 2020."
This stung. The italics are mine. Fraser has told the police there is evidence of the president instructing his head of security to conceal a crime of which he was a victim by paying off the alleged criminals to keep their mouths shut.
If I was Ramaphosa's lawyers, this part would concern me the most. Why did Ramaphosa allegedly want to keep the existence of the crime secret? What was it about the crime that he didn't want the world to know? Why on earth would a victim of crime pay the perpetrators to keep quiet? Is it the cover-up that will sink Ramaphosa?
But first some context.
State Security Agency corruption
It is important to remember that Chief Justice Raymond Zondo is apparently about to drop his report into corruption at the State Security Agency and that this will not be happy reading for Fraser.
The former spy boss was accused, also under oath, at the Zondo Commission of overseeing the large-scale looting of the SSA for political and personal enrichment. It is entirely possible that this was Fraser's last, desperate attempt to show the world Ramaphosa is not as squeaky clean as he pretends to be, or to force the government into some underhanded deal to leave him alone if he leaves Ramaphosa alone.
Irrespective of Fraser's motives - and that is not irrelevant but should be investigated and adjudicated on its own - the very serious claims against the president and his security establishment should be thoroughly investigated.
It is also no surprise that dirt is thrown at Ramaphosa as he prepares to campaign for re-election at the ANC's elective conference in December. At this stage, potentially his biggest competitor is a man who is himself embroiled in a corruption scandal: Zweli Mkhize.
What better ammunition for the Radical Economic Transformation (RET) grouping in the ANC, who are sympathetic to former president Jacob Zuma and will be supporting Mkhize to topple Ramaphosa.
Again, all of the above may be true, but it remains critically important that the allegations against the president be thoroughly investigated by an independent police.
Rhoode
Which brings me to Rhoode; the head of Ramaphosa's presidential protection unit. I first encountered him in 2009 as head of security for the local organising committee of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. At the time, Rhoode was already embroiled in a scandal about a security tender awarded by the National Prosecuting Authority when he was the NPA's security head.
Rhoode left the LOC under a cloud after being accused of awarding tenders to ANC buddies and was shortly thereafter charged with corruption for the NPA tender matter. The case was finally dropped after the main witness died.
A former uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK) cadre, Rhoode is close to Marion Sparg, the NPA's former CEO and another ex-MK fighter. Sparg is a close ally of Ramaphosa who was intimately involved in his campaign for election as ANC president in 2017.
It is understood that she brought Rhoode into Ramaphosa's CR17 campaign. After being elected president, and despite his absence of top security clearance, Rhoode made a stunning comeback in the civil service as head of the presidential protection unit at the rank of Major-General.
The mind boggles. How did Ramaphosa allow this man to be his closest protector and oversee his entire security establishment? At the same time as keeping Fraser on as head of correctional services?
Ramaphosa says he instructed Rhoode to investigate the burglary at his farm and Rhoode himself has thus far declined to respond to Fraser's affidavit.
Irrespective of what the police find in their investigation, what this episode has also shown us is Ramaphosa's astonishing naivety in allowing himself to by surrounded by people with chequered pasts. At some point those bad decisions were going to bite. That moment has arrived.
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