Not everyone is convinced by Floyd Shivambu’s burglary story

The front-page story in Sunday World has divided opinion among the South African public, with many finding its timing questionable and the details hard to swallow.

During a discussion about the article on eNCA’s The Fix in the morning, analysts pointed out that it was apparently eerily similar to a story about Floyd Shivambu’s car being stolen when he was still a student leader years ago.

According to the tabloid, Shivambu’s “luxurious townhouse complex” was broken into “by thugs” earlier this month, but no police case was registered and a complaint was not even laid with the security company at the Pine Avon complex.

All that was reportedly stolen were “two laptops, two cellphones and valuable documents”.

Amazingly, Shivambu supposedly even got a call from the thieves the next day telling him they had enjoyed drinking some of his expensive whisky (though they apparently didn’t steal the actual bottles).

Shivambu told the tabloid that he had reported the burglary to the police, who were “puzzled by it”. He claimed his security system had been destroyed, and he was surprised that valuables such as jewellery and watches had not been taken. He speculated it was more an act of intimidation than anything else.

However, the local police spokesperson told Sunday World they had no record of the case.

The details led many on social media to dismiss the case as a fabrication, either to generate sympathy for the embattled deputy president of the EFF in the wake of allegations that he benefited from the proceeds of crime in the VBS looting scandal, or to produce a cover story for why he no longer has his old laptops and phones – in the event the police swoop on him and may want the equipment as evidence in the VBS investigation.

DA MP Phumzile Van Damme said on Twitter on Sunday morning it was a case of “political communications 101: deflect & generate sympathy for embattled individual”.

She shared a GIF that made it clear she didn’t believe the story one little bit.

One of Shivambu’s defenders, however, speculated that investigative journalist Pauli van Wyk was probably behind the alleged break-in.

(Compiled by Charles Cilliers)

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