Last week Arthur Fraser, the disgraced former spy boss, laid a criminal complaint against President Cyril Ramaphosa. It was not a surprise. In the week before Fraser’s announcement, several social media accounts notorious for carrying propaganda in support of former president Jacob Zuma and for defaming anticorruption commentators had been claiming that he was about to “drop files” on Ramaphosa.
So last week, when Fraser claimed there was theft of upwards of $4m from Ramaphosa’s farm and the president had covered up the theft, some of us were expecting the news. It is without doubt part of a dirty tricks campaign. That does not mean there is no truth to some of the claims, or that there will be no consequences to the allegations...