Scrutator was having a “Lazy Monday” when whispers reached her that a Free State man with roots in Lesotho was claiming to have cobbled up a M2.5 billion bail-out package for MKM.
Soon the whispers bloomed into national news.
With unbridled gusto, Ntsukunyane Matete said he had convinced 500 000 members of Iketsetseng Burial Society to donate M5000 each so people who lost their monies in MKM, a thieving scheme, are be paid their dues.
As Matete’s news percolated into the villages it’s possible that some poor people shed tears of joy. “Hallelujah!” they must have screamed.
As usual, you can always count on our credulous scribes to gobble such falsehoods hook-line-and-sinker and dispatch glowing reports with enthusiasm.
Soon our radio stations, most of which a mere jukeboxes, were buzzing with reports of a looming rescue package for MKM and its depositors.
Commentators — those that have loads of opinion about everything and zilch knowledge on anything — were roped in to add their voices to the already misdirected debates.
Startled by this national gullibility Scrutator asked a colleague to quiz Matete a little more.
“So what are you going to get in return for bailing out MKM?” the reporter asked Matete.
“Well this is not a commercial decision. We are doing it to help our brothers and sisters in Lesotho,” was the not-so-believable response from Matete.
“Why are you bailing out companies that have already been declared illegal and are being liquidated,” the reporter pressed on.
“Well, we don’t care about the litigation and liquidation. All we want is to help our people,” Matete said.
“So how did you raise M2.5 billion,” the reporter fired again.
“M5 000 is not lots of money to contribute. There are many people who are driving cars worth more than a million in South Africa,” said Matete who by now was sounding edgy.
The colleague tells me that after a couple more pointed questions brought the same myopic answers from Matete he bid him farewell.
Scrutator hates to be a party-popper but she just cannot watch while Simon Thebe-ea-Khale and his proxies toy with people’s emotions by giving them hope where there is none. Since this Ponzi scheme collapsed Thebe-ea-Khale has been spreading lies, lies and more lies.
Read my thick and scrumptious lips: “There is no bail-out in the offing and Matete is just a village bumpkin masquerading as a saviour.”
The sooner you realise that this is another of Thebe-ea-Khale’s grand lies the better.
It’s either Matete is disillusioned, confused, lying or plain silly. If we are to be lenient then we can only say he will be doing Thebe-ea-Khale’s bidding.
His so-called plan makes no political, economic or social sense.
So if you believe that some poor South Africans will bail out MKM then you must stop whatever you are smoking or drinking before it causes irreparable damage to your brains.
For the sake of your sanity and dignity you must stop taking such intoxicating things.
Where would South Africans, most of whom have remained shack dwellers and depressingly poor 17 years since the end of apartheid, get M2.5 billion?
Who in their right minds would give out M5 000 to bail out a wretched Ponzi scheme like MKM?
For what gain would they undertake such a reckless enterprise?
Scrutator needs not remind you that burial societies, by their very nature, are for the poor.
Those who can afford get proper funeral policies with proper insurance companies.
The concept behind burial societies is akin to that of stokvels where poor people are pooling resources together so they can get help during times of trouble.
Iketsetseng Burial Society is a grouping of poor people battling to make a living.
But here is Matete telling us, with a straight face, that those people have been so “touched” by our plight that they have decided to raise M5 000 each to help us out.
Remember M2.5 billion is just about a quarter of this country’s current budget.
Holy dung!
Deceit has never come in such see-through packaging.
You don’t need to have been blessed with an average IQ to see that Thebe-ea-Khale and his cahoots are once again leading a whole country up the garden path here. Even a NUL fourth-year student will tell you that he can’t attest to that.
Yet Scrutator is not surprised by Thebe-ea-Khale’s recent high jinks. Thebe-ea-Khale is living proof of what happens when a country pampers criminals.
Not content with stealing from nearly half a million people he is now concocting lies that only add insult to his victims.
Over the years he has weaved a web of lies to justify his warped idea that he is a victim of some ulterior motives.
One reason he does this with impunity is because he has this country’s key people in his pockets.
The powerful people are so compromised that they cannot raise a finger to deal with his criminality.
By commission or omission they made him what he is today.
The second reason is that he has so much time on his hands.
Now that his pyramid scheme has collapsed he has enough time to engage in monkeyshines.
If he was facing a lengthy stay behind bars he wouldn’t be up to such tomfoolery. To stop him someone must lock him up in a maximum security penitentiary and swallow the keys.
Thirdly, Thebe-ea-Khale is playing all these monkey tricks because he is desperate.
He has been found. He has to do or say something just to save face.
“Shame is worse than death,” so says one African adage.
Someone has to take him out of his misery by bringing him in for trial and jailing him for a very long time.
Still you can bet your last penny that this will never happen in this country. You see, Thebe-ea-Khale has his tentacles everywhere. Almost everyone who matters in this country has had dealings with him.
Talk of the police, judges, prosecutors, magistrate, government ministers, opposition leaders, senior civil servants, bishops, herd boys and chiefs.
That is why he can pee on MKM investors and laugh very loud without anyone calling him to order. Soon he will be doing the heavier stuff on their heads and no one will say a word.
Ache!
