Yes, but is Jacob Zuma a proper gangster?
When Jesse James died, his crimes died with him, but Al Capone’s criminal organisation lives on. Where does SA’s president sit on the gangster continuum?
The words make chilling reading. They are placed on the record on page 119 of journalist Jacques Pauw’s new book, The President’s Keepers. The gangster Glenn Agliotti, organiser of the disorganised killing of Brett Kebble, is talking to business associates Paul de Robillard and Yusuf Kajee about the cigarette smuggling business. One of them recorded the conversation for posterity: Agliotti: "Get the product [cigarettes] and we will run it. I will give you all the protection in writing. They know I’m a gangster." Kajee: "Will it be with their blessing?" Agliotti: "SAPS [the SA police], Hawks, Sars [the SA Revenue Service] all the way down. We already negotiated the whole thing. Three years. That is my retirement. I said, ‘Zuma you are going to pay. I helped you become president or you would have been arrested’." Kajee: "But he is a genuine guy." Agliotti: "No, he is fine. He is a gangster like us." There you have it from the mouth of someone who is something of an expert on the subje...
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