Scam nation: How South Africa lost America’s trust - Simon Lincoln Reader - Biznews

 Simon Lincoln Reader
The best way to deal with scammers is to torture them emotionally. When a message lands in my social media inbox from an “Angel Hernandez” accompanied by a picture of a young woman sipping coffee with a small dog on her lap, I know that I’m actually talking to Rajesh from Karachi, who is sitting in a building with a fan on his desk next to his computer. I play along: yes – crypto, yes – I would be delighted to collaborate on building a portfolio, yes – I trust you to share the details of my wallet.

Then I leave, and come back a few days later with something akin to the script of a snuff movie – explaining that I was absent because I was kidnapped by an elderly couple and drugged-up. The man then shoved a gun into my mouth and forced me to be intimate with the woman. So, sorry Rajesh, no crypto, but for the appallingly explicit details that will trouble you for days – you’re welcome. 

America is starting to sniff a scam out of South Africa, and not just one thing – the entire country. From the least likely of places – San Francisco – comes a non-partisan political magazine, Palladium, where South Africa appears in a recent article authored by one Lawrence Thomas.

Factually it is unimpeachable, but beyond routine depressing realities, there’s something darker about the perspective delivered to Americans: the author isn’t talking just about a failing state, but a state that failed because of one massive generational grift. 

It is a view shared by many these days on Capitol Hill. Whereas the America of yesteryear didn’t deny the country’s problems – which the Biden and Obama and Clinton administrations always attached to the past – they were cautious not to go further. Times are evidently different. 

Recent events
Unfortunately, recent events do nothing to avert suspicions. The Americans now know about what Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi said; unlike recently, there’s been no rush to dismiss or debunk his revelations. They know about Phala Phala, the ineptitude of the National Prosecuting Authority, the failure to act upon the findings of the Zondo Commission.

They know about Babita Deokaran and the trend of political assassinations – most of which involve tenders or fraud, which mostly originate from retarded legislation. All of these they now know, and they’re examining the country in the way you’d eye-up a man in Dubai trying to rush you for $1m for a shitcoin. 

Now one of the most annoying officials, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, has emerged to declare a series of threats to the state. She doesn’t appear to be able to understand that a coup, as she described it, requires something called an “army” – and South Africa doesn’t appear to possess one of those at present.

As fear can be used as part of a scam, take note of the timing: with the chaos in the country’s law enforcement, the very real consequences of tariffs and the idea that our problems can be solved by a “dialogue”, Ntshavheni’s remarks are nothing more than a desperate, dead-cat-bounce scam.

Law enforcement
Law enforcement is a major feature of the scam as it’s presented, and that’s because many of its officials have always been a bit scam-ey. When Nelson Mandela parachuted SAB’s Meyer Kahn in to try and settle the thing down, he surrendered with similar thoughts: too big, too wild, too many on the make – guns and drugs mainly. In our efforts to ignore this particular event – which saw us in one part believing that a social worker called Riah Phiyega would be able to calm the turmoil Jackie Selebi triggered – we’ve scammed ourselves. 

South Africa isn’t necessarily alone. The UK is home to many scams – one of which is the secret passage between the state and private enterprise. There are the ideas that “diversity built Britain” and that unfettered immigration adds to the vibrancy of the state.

With the exception of some exotic cuisine, diversity is not  measurable, and must thus be treated with caution. The difference is that the UK wasn’t the recipient of the largest donation of political goodwill in living memory. South Africa was; the Americans feel that in addition to aid and donation schemes there are other forms of largesse. Hope has turned to cope. 

The problem is that it is very difficult for scammers to rehabilitate themselves, which explains why Barry Tannenbaum now drives an Uber. Rael Levitt was never formally charged for allegedly inflating the sale price of a wine estate, but the incident – resulting in an explosion of suspicions – forced him to voluntarily shutter Auction Alliance.

If Rajesh were to come back to me, reveal his full name, ‘fess up, and explain that he’s turned his life around and is now selling household cleaning products – so would you like some – chances are I wouldn’t buy. 

But trying to redeem ourselves in the eyes of others, especially the Americans, is wrong and probably impossible. First, and most importantly, we would have to admit to our part in our own scam, even if we just believed it – and never profited. 

Simon Lincoln Reader grew up in Cape Town before moving to Johannesburg in 2001, where he was an energy entrepreneur until 2014. In South Africa, he wrote a weekly column for Business Day, then later Biznews.com. Today he is a partner at a London-based litigation funder, a trustee of an educational charity, and a member of the advisory board of the Free Speech Union of South Africa. He travels frequently between California, the UK, and South Africa. All on his green passport

https://www.biznews.com/thought-leaders/scam-nation-sa-lost-americas-trust-slr

This article was first published on the Daily Friend.