THE fires may have been contained, but here at the Mahogany Ridge the debate still rages. Who is Gavin of Mitchells Plain and why did he feel that the relentless blaze that caused so much havoc and destruction in the southern Peninsula was a form of divine retribution?
More importantly, why is our intelligence community so dof?
Many commentators have suggested that the fires brought out the best in us; we caught a glimpse, as one newspaper headline put it, "of how united and well-functioning South Africa could be" as local businesses, organisations and individuals donated food, material, money and expertise to fight the fire. "Humanity at its best," the writer and editor Helen Moffett noted in The Times.
It seemed that, in the face of such devastation and damage, we had managed to put aside the petty politicking and fatuous squabbling that has so come to characterise our public life.
Close, but no cigar.
Enter Gavin from Mitchells Plain: "I see God has finally decided to punish those selfish snobs in Noordhoek." That one-line text message was published in the SMS Feedback column in the Cape Argus on Wednesday.
It was like dropping a lighted match into a box of fireworks and Thursday's column showed we still had a way to go when it came to ignoring such witless provocations.
Readers came down on him like the wolf on the fold. "Gavin, you insensitive bastard. I hope your house is safe," was one response. Another was, "If there is a God, he/she would not be interested in a miserable sod like you. Enjoy that chip on your shoulder - it's there for life."
There was quite a bit in that vein. But you get the drift.
Other readers wondered why Cosatu's Tony Ehrenreich of the leader of the ANC in the Western Cape, Marius Fransman, had not yet blamed Jan van Riebeeck for starting the fires.
But the text that really intrigued me was the suggestion that the fires were deliberately started on the Argus Cycle Tour route to destabilise this and other popular events in the Western Cape.
What was the thinking here? That a cancelled bicycle event meant the Cape was ungovernable?
This fascination with conspiracy theories - and here we move on to darker matters - does suggest a level of paranoia that is now the default setting at the State Security Agency, a group of shady individuals who over the past few weeks have come to enjoy a fair chunk of the limelight.
Quite why they should now concern itself with the bizarre allegations that Public Protector Thuli Madonsela, EFF leader Julius Malema, former Democratic Alliance parliamentary leader Lindiwe Mazibuko and Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union president Joseph Mathunjwa, among others, are agents of America's Central Intelligence Agency is something of a mystery.
But there you have it. The allegations were made in a dodgy blog, African Intelligence Leaks, and this, according to Minister of State Security David "Signal Jammer" Mahlobo, was of great concern to the government - so much so that the SSA were put on the case. Cue knowing smirks and laughter all round.
Malema was particularly scornful of the investigation. "I have never heard such madness in my life . . . those people are clowns," he told Beeld. "Our biggest problem is that our ‘intelligence' is not intelligent."
That's quite a serious charge, coming from the likes of him.
But Madonsela more or less agreed with Malema. "A grade nine pupil could see it is rubbish," she said. This, admittedly, is not a very complimentary assessment of the academic qualifications of our spooks.
According to African Intelligence Leaks, Madonsela was supposedly using her position as executive secretary of the African Ombudsman and Mediators Association to gather intelligence on African countries for the CIA.
"Is Madonsela another CIA project against South Africa," the blog asked, "or is she a CIA project against the whole African continent?"
Madonsela has said she would be lodging a formal complaint against the SSA. She also said it was "interesting" that Mahlobo's statement about the investigations came just days before President Jacob Zuma was due to answer questions in Parliament.
The response from Mazibuko, who is said to be trying to organise a "Pretoria version of the Arab Spring", was even more dismissive.
"It's pretty embarrassing that a SA cabinet minister would issue a press statement responding to a false blog post from the lunatic fringe," she tweeted from Harvard, where she is studying. She stuck a "sad face" at the end of her tweet, presumably because she couldn't find the emoticon that wet its pants from laughing so hard.
This article first appeared in the Weekend Argus.
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