Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula smuggled a Burundian woman with a false passport into South Africa on an air force jet. The minister - who remains defiant about her involvement in the case - yesterday denied she had abused her power, saying: "I'd do it again if I had to."Confronted by the Sunday Times yesterday, Mapisa-Nqakula conceded that she flew from Waterkloof Air Force Base to the Democratic Republic of Congo to fetch Michelle Wege, 22, on January 28, 2014.
This has already been demonstrated in the contradiction between the president’s assertions that this was an attempted “insurrection” and the first statements by Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula that this was not a coup. Already there are some signs that those who oppose Ramaphosa will deny that this is an insurrection, while it might be to his political advantage to claim that our democracy is under attack.
While much of the nation watched the violence and looting last week, glued in horror to TV screens, it is sometimes forgotten how little we still know about how it started. The government has said that five “instigators” have been arrested, but there is still little public information on what exactly happened. Who “started it”, what did they do, how did the violence spread from there? These are crucial questions.