’I know you ‘11 think I'm mad, but I love Johannesburg'

In 1997, when Mzwakhe Mbuli, the people's poet, was arrested and accused of robbing a bank, we were truly amazed. Mbuli was an icon of the struggle, a hero of the young lions. He was a large, imposing figure of a man, his booming voice spoke to a generation. In the 1980s, during the most bitter years of struggle, he would perform his poetry at mass rallies and funerals in front of tens of thousands of people. He had a power and hypnotic authority that everybody knew was quite remarkable, even if many were unsure of the ultimate value of his poetry. How was it that such a shining figure could find himself in such a perverse mess?

Our amazement was compounded when Robert McBride, a most controversial soldier of the struggle, a death row prisoner, and then a Member of Parliament in South Africa's first democratic government, was arrested, accused of gunrunning and held in a Mozambican jail for six months without trial. How was this possible? What was going on? Had Robert McBride joined the ranks of the criminals, running guns into KwaZulu Natal, as some claimed, or had he infiltrated these gunrunning operations on behalf of the secret secret service? Is there a secret secret service in the ‘new’ South Africa? Does the new democratic government need a new secret service to spy on the old secret service? Is this what a new, fragile and democratic government needs to protect itself? Does one half of the secret service know what the other half of the secret service is doing? After McBride's arrest, the newspapers were full of these speculations.

When Colin Chauke, former Umkhonto We Sizwe commander, was arrested and accused of masterminding the bank heists that were plaguing Johannesburg, our amazement was complete. Were members of MK, the former guerrilla army, now putting their skills to work robbing banks?

Colin Chauke seemed extraordinary. This former guerrilla, while held in jail on suspicion of masterminding the heists, managed to retain his connection with senior government ministers, the then chief of police, and other senior members of the new government.