Carl “never-say-die” Niehaus – Part I
Combat Carl is the gift that keeps on giving. His face is set in a seemingly perpetual state of self-righteous rage, with a florid pinkness that puts one in mind of his cultural, if not political kinsman, Eugene Terreblanche.
He led the now disbanded, previously disbanded MK Military Veterans Association (MKMVA) in the promise to defend Jacob Zuma to the death in the latter’s desperate battle against the judiciary over the past two weeks.
He threatened repeatedly to bring out the now defunct (x 2) MKVA to prevent Zuma from reaching his legal cul de sac.
While trying to do his honourable best, his beloved ANC really put the knife in.
On Wednesday ANC deputy secretary-general, Jessie Duarte, wrote to Carl and social media, on an official letterhead, to tell him that the ANC had suspended him from the party.
Duarte charmingly signed off “Yours in the Struggle”, although one suspects that the parties would’ve had very different ideas as to which struggle.
The real clanger is that Niehaus is accused of having “brought the ANC into disrepute” and that any more misconduct will “cause further damage to the good name and reputation of the ANC”.
As everyone agrees, you can’t bring an already disreputable organisation into disrepute and, as Tom Eaton says, for the ANC’s good name to be further damaged it needs to have a good name to start with.
Carl “Never-say-die” Niehaus – Part II
For Carl his credentials, whatever they may be, were burnished further after Zuma was arrested.
Carl stood watch outside Escort prison all through the night of Zuma’s arrest and gathered a crowd to shout their unwavering support for JZ in this, his lowest, legal moment.
But not knowing when or how to shut up, Carl was arrested. He was arrested for what he should have been arrested for earlier in the week, namely, breaching the Covid-19 regulations pertaining to gatherings.
The arrest was carried out by heavily armed police officers outside Estcourt prison while he was conducting a live TV interview.
Police spokesman Brigadier Vishnu Naidoo confirmed that members of the police arrested ‘a prominent political figure for allegedly breaking the Lockdown Regulations’ – as seen on TV.
‘The Disaster Management Act Regulations clearly outlines gatherings are prohibited, except for funerals where not more than 50 people are allowed to attend. The suspect was initially warned about the gathering and he was subsequently arrested after ignoring the warning. He is currently in police custody likely to face charges in terms of the DMA Regulations. This arrest should be a warning to potential law-breakers that contravention of the Lockdown Regulations especially amidst the ever- increasing Covid-19 virus will not be tolerated.’
Would it be too unkind to suggest that it wasn’t really monumental bravery on the part of the police to arrest him for holding a gathering of more than 50 people outside a jail, when they failed to do the same when a much larger, more belligerent crowd was gathered outside Nkandla on the weekend?
Anyway, a paltry R3 000 fine was money well spent in burnishing credentials as a freedom fighter (freedom for Jacob Zuma) that is.
Dali drones on
Fearless scribe, Jeremy Gordin, took one for the team, so to speak, by watching 360 minutes of advocate Dali Mpofu SC’s argument as to why the Pietermaritzburg High Court should stay the execution of Zuma’s warrant of arrest.
Mpofu raised a judicial argument of audacious cunning by submitting to the judge that ‘“another Marikana” looms if Zuma’s warrant of arrest isn’t halted’. He said Zuma would be subjected to the ‘worst imaginable’ human rights violation, and this would ‘go against the wishes of the people’. ‘Let’s have another Marikana. Or whatever might happen,’ Mpofu added. I say let’s not!
Gordin explains it thus: ‘A silk says to a high court judge: “Give me what I want in this court, or you’ll be sanctioning another Marikana”. Why not just say to the judge “Grant what I want, or I’ll kill your family?”’
Mpofu has not so much burnished his reputation as scorched it.