EFF leadership gloats, as top journo’s state capture connections exposed

It’s been a whirlwind day at the State Capture Inquiry. Colonel Dhanajaya Naidoo has lifted the lid on the political underworld, where politicians – including Bheki Cele – allegedly strongarmed law enforcement into protecting their own corruption activities. He also implicated journalist Ranjeni Munusamy in further wrongdoing, much to the EFF’s delight.

Bheki Cele, Ranjeni Munusamy nailed at the State Capture Inquiry

At this time, details around the alleged payments made to Cele have not been made very clear by Naidoo, as he has mentioned several times that he was not privy to most of the things discussed in these meetings. Cele, who was once the MEC for Transport in KwaZulu-Natal, allegedly awarded local businessman Panganathan Marimuthu illicit tenders.

Ranjeni Munusamy was also hung out to dry: The veteran reporter was namedropped by Hawks investigator Kobus Roelofse at the State Capture Inquiry earlier in September. Lightning struck twice for the beleagured journalist when Naidoo delved further into the illicit details surrounding her finances.

Ranjeni Munusamy: Further links to state capture exposed

Munusamy, who has pursued the state capture story for years, ended up making the headlines herself when Roelofse revealed she had received an illicit payment from Crime Intelligence back in 2008. She also got herself embroiled in a war of words with the EFF recently, hence the unmitigated joy coming from their benches on Monday.

Naidoo, who has been under witness protection for 11 years after blowing the whistle on the corruption allegations, says the journalist was given R40 000 to pay for repairs to her car. This is, allegedly, on top of the R140 000 she received from CI to pay off the total cost of her vehicle to the bank.

Naidoo tells the commission that after meeting up with Ranjeni Munusamy he then took her vehicle himself to the dealer (New World Motors) as there were issues with it, he says the vehicle was then repaired and the tyres were replaced.#StateCaptureInquiry

— State Capture Commission (@StateCaptureCom) September 30, 2019

EFF react to reporter’s roasting

Julius Malema has acknowledged the developments through a series of sly retweets on Monday afternoon, but it was left to party spokesperson Mbuyiseni Ndlozi to break the EFF’s silence on the matter. The politician believes that “many more journalists” have been planted to fight the agenda of state captors:

“EFF leadership to you, Ranjeni Munusamy, is not a journalist. There are many more journalists on intelligence agencies’ payroll used to plant stories in the media to tarnish reputations of political opponents of those who control these agencies – like Pravin Gordhan’s Rogue Unit at SARS.”

Mbuyiseni Ndlozi

• The hearings continue on Monday afternoon in Parktown, Johannesburg.