From the news desk

Presidency denies Zuma gang meeting

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The Presidency has dismissed a Mail and Guardian report alleging that President Jacob Zuma met with top Western Cape gang bosses as ” frivolous, incoherent and pathetic”. The report suggests Zuma met with key alleged gang figures including Ighsaan “Saanie American” Davids and Quinton “Mr Big” Marinus in a bid to try and win back the province from the DA. It is also alleged that Zuma offered to address the gang leaders’ financial issues with SARS, in return for votes from their respective members.

Journalist Sam Sole, a managing partner of the Mail and Guardians investigative unit, AmaBhungane said there was a history around “dirty tricks” when it came to elections within the province. Hence it was lamentable that the presidency failed to provide a more detailed response to the claims against Zuma.

“We did send them very detailed questions and allegations that they could have responded to one by one, but they chose not to,” he stated.

The alleged meeting is believed to have been attended by a number of key figures within the Cape coloured community, which has raised some doubts as to whether Zuma was in fact aware of the attendance of the alleged gang bosses. But Sole noted that the reported meeting was facilitated by a notorious Durban-based underworld figure and long-time family associate of the president, Lloyd Hill.

“We’ve sketched the context of how this meeting came about, and we’ve argued that it does raise questions about an innocent interpretation of the meeting, which is what the ANC has suggested, that the president would not knowingly meet with gangsters,” he said.

Sole admitted that much of the claims were based on the accounts of just two sources, owing to the difficulty in getting witnesses to speak up on the confidential gathering.

Marinus has also denied attending such a meeting, and has threatened to sue AmaBhungane over the allegations.

To read the original report you may follow the link: http://amabhungane.co.za/article/2015-11-19-zuma-deal-with-cape-gang-bosses?utm_source=hootsuite 

VOC


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