Base pursuits sully those with even the most admirable traits
Human fallibility at the heart of Brian Molefe, Jimi Matthews and Nazeem Howa decline in shame and scandal, writes Carol Paton
Brian Molefe, Jimi Matthews and Nazeem Howa: all powerful people who suddenly and unexpectedly resigned from their jobs. All were deeply implicated in wrongdoing linked to the regime or network they propped up. But none was pushed to step down. All took a personal decision. Molefe was known as a Gupta man in ANC circles for years. But he was clever and arrogant enough to throw his intellect around. Few could question him when he plucked numbers on Eskom’s improved energy availability factor from the ether and tried to bamboozle with outdated graphs on energy demand.So too was Howa. As Oakbay CEO, a position he took after several years with the Gupta media operations, he was the chief purveyor of Gupta propaganda. It was Howa who went to meet ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe to persuade him that the real source of the Guptas’ problem with banks was Stellenbosch mogul Johann Rupert. Rupert was aided and abetted by his friends the Manuel-Ramoses, who sat on related boards and had a...
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