Analysis: Wa Afrika's arrest, a bigger picture

The big questions behind Wednesday's melodramatic arrest of Sunday Times journalist, Mzilikazi wa Afrika, cast an ominous shadow over South Africa's fragile grip on democracy.

As we write this, the exact whereabouts of Mzilikazi wa Afrika are still unknown. Erik van den Berg, lawyer for the Sunday Times, says they know he was booked into the Watervalboven police station at 5:30pm on Wednesday, 4 August 2010. Then he was booked out. He has not been booked in anywhere else in Mpumalanga.

Needless to say, this uncertainty really gives this story the fear factor. No lawyer has yet been to see Wa Afrika. Is that what the country ruled by the "greatest liberation movement" in the world has come to? This is behaviour reminiscent of one of the worst kinds of government - the one we thought we had relegated to history in 1994.

Strangely, the spin side of "Operation Arrest Wa Afrika" has been much quicker.

Continue reading the full analysis on www.thedailymaverick.co.za.

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Source: Daily Maverick

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About Stephen Grootes: @StephenGrootes

Stephen Grootes is political reporter for Eyewitness News (www.ewn.co.za) and contributing editor for Business Day (www.businessday.co.za). He used to write for The Daily Maverick (www.thedailymaverick.co.za). Follow him on Twitter at @StephenGrootes.
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