The arrest and pending indictment on charges of fraud of controversial businessman Sandi Majali can be described as the nemesis of a buccaneer capitalist.
Though Majali, who transferred R11-million to the ruling African National Congress about four months before the April 2004 general election even though the money was not his to donate, sees himself as the innocent victim of a mistaken accusation.
Majali's arrest last Friday was the sequel to a hearing in the Johannesburg High Court in which the founders of Kalahari Sands, a multi-billion rand mining company; complained that Majali and seven purported accomplices had hijacked the company.
The applicants, Daphne Mashile-Nkosi, a widow, and her brother Colin Mashile, sought an order restoring them as directors of the company. Acting Judge Fayeza Kathree-Setiloane granted the application and ordered that Majali and his seven collaborators be removed from the board of directors.
Majali's arrest and later release on bail can be interpreted positively as a sign that the criminal justice system is beginning to operate under the constitutional injunction to proceed without fear, favour or prejudice and that no one, no matter how well connected to the ruling party, will be exempted from investigation or, if justified, indictment on criminal charges.
Against that, however, it would have looked suspicious if the police sat on their hands after the judgement in the Johannesburg High Court, even allowing for the fact that the judgement related to a civil rather than a criminal case.