Matshela Koko’s arrest will test Zuma loyalties

It’s all good and well to be on the winning team. Everybody wants to be.

For a couple of years, however, this really hasn’t applied to members of the Zuma camp within the ANC.

Ag, sure, there were the hints of NDZ’s ridiculous lockdown restrictions and that riot in KZN, but those were more the actions of people with their backs against the wall, rather than a leading political faction.

Up until now, the most that’s happened is some Gupta arrests in Dubai we haven’t heard much more about since June but locally, very little.

The acolytes on this side of the world have largely gotten off with a slap on the wrist and a bad look in the public eye. Y’know, if you can take millions meant for your people and be morally okay with that while sleeping peacefully at night, I doubt you’d have any qualms about the media labelling you a bad guy.

It seems to be a rite of passage into the Zuma loyalty factions to get the chance to claim you’re being oppressed by the media, cry woe-is-me, and abuse Twitter to convince yourself you’re not that bad.

Also Read: Ex-Eskom CEO Matshela Koko arrested for alleged corruption

That was all easy. You got to keep most of the money, people didn’t like you, and you hardly had to wait a week before your comrade initiated the next scandal and everybody forgot about you. Seems like a great low risk arbitrage opportunity if ever there was one.

The thing with arbitrage low risk opportunities, however, is that once they become established, more and more people want in, and the more people who get in, the more stories become known.

Just ask Bathabile Dlamini about “smallanyana skeletons”.

So, what’s exciting about Matshela Koko being arrested in South Africa, and sitting in the docks for something as relatively small as a bail hearing? Those who thought they were protected can see the armour coming apart.

The slap on the wrist can ultimately grow into a klap through the face that not all the metaphorical botox in the world will be able to hide.

The more the likes of the Kokos are forced to answer the difficult, probing and probably implicating questions, the more their allies are going to try to find ways to protect themselves.

That’s the intriguing thing about being on a winning team; when the team is no longer of value, you still want to be a winner, even if you had absolutely no part in making that team a winning one.

You need not do any work when you’re riding on the team until the team starts to suck. Then what? Then you do what you can to make it seem like you weren’t the cause of the suck.

If the state has a case that is winnable against Koko, I have absolutely no doubt that his lawyers are drafting a lovely big list of things they can offer the NPA in exchange for leniency. I also have no doubt that Koko’s lawyers are not the only lawyers sitting with high profile leadership making similar lists.

That Zondo commission was cool and all, and the lip service the President recently paid to was obviously welcome but nobody goes to the movies just to watch the previews.

It’s time to get to the feature film which I believe is a new version of Jaws.

I’m keen to see who gets thrown into the water with no life jacket but a pair of Versace kicks and a D&G handbag.

More importantly, I’m looking forward to seeing how those still running won’t even bother to look back at their dying former teammate.

That’s the thing about being on a winning team. When the winning stops, what have you got left?