Predator Politics: Mabuza, Fred Daniel and the Great Land Scam

by Rehana Rossouw

Corruption cost taxpayers around R1.5 trillion during Jacob Zuma’s spell as president of South Africa. Despite attempts by the police, the courts and the Public Protector to stem the rising tide of graft in South Africa, several politicians were rewarded with high office after stealing the aspirations of millions of people.Fred Daniel, one citizen among many targeted by predator politicians, stood up against the scourge. The retaliation he faced after attempts by corrupt politicians to grab his nature reserve in Mpumalanga included vandalism, arson, smears and death threats. His nemesis is Deputy President D.D. Mabuza, who presided over several departments in the province that were wrecked by graft before he ascended to the position of the second most powerful politician in the country. Fred has won more than twenty cases over the past fifteen years in magistrates’ and high courts where his claims of corruption-related harassment were found credible. The North Gauteng High Court is hearing his damages claim against Mabuza, government departments and officials amounting to more than R1 billion. It stems from Fred’s exposure of fraudulent land scams allegedly orchestrated by Mabuza.At great personal cost, Fred and his family stood up to corruption. They endured the loss of a livelihood and their home – and the fear that follows when the government places a target on the back of a citizen blowing the whistle on its misdeeds. Fred will not back down. For him, failure is not an option.

230 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 2, 2020

Reviews

[Robert Laing · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wanting a simple explainer of South Africa's political corruption problems, I was attracted to this book in that it promised to focus on a specific example -- how what should have been a feel-good story of a distressed farming area blossoming into a thriving tourist destination soured into yet another tale of a local politician and his cronies destroying everything just to pocket a quick buck. Tragically, that local politician is now South Africa's deputy president, David "D.D." Mabuza.

I worked with Rehana Rossouw for many years at Business Day, and she is a writer and journalist I have huge respect for. So I really wanted to like this book, but my ultimate verdict is it's "ok" as in 3/5. My main gripe is readers are left to digest too much unprocessed information themselves: direct quotes from interviews, legal documents, press archives are too long, and readers are assumed to have the ability to chew through all this and draw the right conclusions.

There are lots of ingredients in the tale told by Predator Politics for a ripping yarn. For instance, most readers would recall the weird story when Mabuza claimed to have been poisoned in October 2015, requiring a visit to Russia for medical treatment. Where the plot thickens, the hero of this story -- environmentalist Fred Daniel -- narrowly survived a trap laid by someone claiming to be Mabuza's niece during this time.

A disadvantage journalists have against novelists is absolutely honest and reliable sources are rare, and reality is way stranger than fiction. It's a safe guess Rehana had to be pretty cautious with her phrasing of allegations against our deputy president, given the legal resources he has at his disposal.

Possibly Rehana's years as a newspaper desk-editor are to blame for this book not being as readable as it should be: she has made a lot of effort to credit her references and provide the provenance of all the facts she presents. I read her book after Andrew Harding's These are not gentle people, which set the bar very high, and wish she had also decided to focus on grabbing and holding the reader's attention, sacrificing some newspaper dogmas in the process.

[Gillian Nicholson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Political shenanigans just go on and on in our beloved South Africa 🇿🇦 and whilst we wish for an Operation Carwash, or at least just one convicted looter in Orange overalls, each book written exposes more layers to the sickening corruption that is our norm in South Africa.
That our deputy, David Mabuza has a tainted reputation is a real worry. Hope his past catches up with him and precludes him from becoming No 1
Books like this help.

[Regaugetswe Maroo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Predator Politics is a simple explanation of South Africa’s biggest problem - CORRUPTION. The book highlights the relationship between corruption whistleblower Fred Daniel and Deputy President of South Africa. It also highlights the corruption in the Mpumalanga Provincial Government. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and can’t wait to read the author’s other books.

[Joyce Meijs · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting read for one who wants to know about the corruption in South Africa. It showcases a resilience of the South African population, and the unfortunate attitude of some political elites towards developmental initiatives.