10.22
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The weirdness of Des van Rooyen in camouflage
This was surely the weirdest moment in the Gordhan saga. Dressed in camouflage and flanked by MK veterans leader Kebby 'The Cook' Mapthatsoe, the local government minister, Des 'Che Guevara' van Rooyen was holding forth from the lectern.
Mapthatsoe showed no battle scars from his most recent skirmish with Ronnie Kasrils in the Pretoria High Court where he was made to go down on his knees and apologise for shooting his mouth off when he wrongly accused the latter of orchestrating the Zuma rape trial.
On the contrary. He was in full voice, doing his master's bidding by attacking a fellow minister, Pravin Gordhan, at an event arranged for that purpose.
Van Rooyen, wearing camoflauge t-shirt and peak cap to remind all present that there was a very hard man inside the portly exterior, had even more to say on Gordhan, the man who replaced him after his three eventful days as finance minister.
What concerned Van Rooyen was that his fellow minister had failed to come to heel when ordered to do so by the Hawks.
“What we are arguing here is that, if you are given an opportunity to respond through state institutions, why then run to the media and give responses through the media? That is in our take, trying to take the matter which is supposed to be processed within appropriately established state institutions to the public,” Van Rooyen said on eNCA.
The irony that he was saying all of this at a media conference appeared to be lost on the underground warrior.
But it was all eclipsed by the weirdness of the moment. Perhaps Van Rooyen will give us a fuller account of his heroics for MK at some future point. Or was he a cook like Kebby?
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