Let’s be very clear. It’s not illegal for Paul Mashatile to own a mansion in a posh part of Cape Town to go with his other mansion in Waterval. It’s not illegal for sons to buy their father a house or two. And it’s not illegal for Donald Trump to start a meme coin.
Yes, there have been allegations that Mashatile’s sons might have benefited from juicy government tenders.
And yes, amaBhungane reported last month that Mashatile’s sister-in-law and a close friend run the company that won the licence to run the money-printing machine that is the national lottery.
And yes, this week News24 reported that Mashatile’s aide and adviser, Keith Khoza, attended a birthday party in 2023 for Zondo-accused businessman Edwin Sodi — a man Mashatile says is his friend — along with underworld figure Vusimusi “Cat” Matlala.
But all of these could be entirely coincidental. They prove nothing except that the Mashatile family is very sociable and very lucky when it comes to lucrative lines of work. All we know for sure is that the man most likely to be our next president is a public servant who is blessed with industrious and generous sons, and who refuses to ditch his friends should they make a simple mistake like accidentally getting charged as part of the R255m Free State asbestos corruption scandal.
Still, there will be those who see corruption at every turn, like those who point at Donald Trump’s entirely illegal meme coin.
Trump’s cryptocurrency, they claim, is the most efficient way ever devised of bribing a head of state in total secrecy.
But is it? Could foreign governments, corrupt oligarchs and rogue organisations transfer hundreds of millions of dollars to Trump and his family by buying a form of currency deliberately designed to evade detection and defy scrutiny by financial regulators?
Absolutely. But have they?
Exactly. Who can say?
Surely the same logic must apply to Mashatile and his growing portfolio of blue-chip real estate?
Of course, I understand the worries of his accusers. If buying multimillion-rand homes for Mashatile is now an entirely normal thing to do, I can see how it might feel reasonable to worry that our future president could be setting up a system through which he might be bribed to influence government contracts, the granting of telecom, or mining, or lotto licences.
But is he and will it happen?
Exactly. I rest my case.
For now, I would like to congratulate Mashatile on the, er, acquisition of his second mansion. May it be filled with children who want nothing in return but the gratitude of their father, and good friends like Edwin Sodi.
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