Stool Pigeon

Hunters used to nail a pigeon to a stool. Its alarmed cries would attract other birds, which the hunter would then shoot. Hence the term “stool pigeon”, meaning an informant, especially an informant who is under duress. Clinton Nassif is a stool pigeon. He has been fitted up with an insurance fraud charge based on an allegation that his car turned into a write-off from being not quite a write-off when he crashed it. In his time of stress he suddenly started squealing to the Scorpions about Jacky Selebi, the Commissioner of Police. Selebi is a man who does not like the Scorpions at all, wants them disbanded and wants their staff returned to the ranks of the regular police, under his command. None of these are very nice people. It would be far better to write about all of them in the wry tones of a Damon Runyon than in the self-righteous style of the pulpit. So why is it that Karima Brown suddenly ups and takes sides with the Scorps against Selebi (see the link below), demanding his head? She wants him to jump before he is even charged, let alone tried. She follows the rule the Scorps learned from their masters, the US FBI: “Innocent until investigated” (and to hell with trials). The trouble with hanging somebody every time a stoolie squeals is that we will never know the truth. This kind of journalism only lets the truth come out skew, or sideways. For example, if Selebi jumps, and Clinton Nassif’s insurance problems suddenly disappear, and we get to hear about it, then that is some kind of truth, but a crabwise kind. When stoolies rule the roost, you’ll never really know who to believe, and journalism will have less connection with truth and more connection with power. It’s a shame when journalists forget how to tell the difference. Let’s hope Karima Brown’s amnesia is temporary. Neil Coleman is COSATU’s parliamentary co-ordinator. In his 2002 “Theory of the Transition”, written prior to a bilateral between the COSATU and the ANC in 2002, he reveals some history of ideas, including the NDR, and also some history of political sleight-of-hand, especially in the early 1990s. We were all weak then. We were not prepared, except perhaps the man who wrote the document called “Unmandated Reflections”, Thabo Mbeki. He was prepared to that extent, and used his preparation not once, but at least twice – once just around the time of the election in 1994 and then again seven years later in the “Briefing Notes” putsch. Coleman summarises all these things in the document linked below, including the Unmandated Reflections of Thabo Mbeki. It is a major reprise of all the main aspects of “transition” in South Africa, just as good today as it was when it was written. P W Botha died today. He defied the TRC. Did he then take his secrets to the grave? Not really. What secrets? There was less to him than met the eye. Banal is the word, i.e. cheap, or small-time. P W Botha was a petty thug, that’s all. Click on this link: If SA is to have any faith in police, Karima Brown, Business Day (788 words) Theory of the Transition, Neil Coleman, COSATU, Feb 2002 (10829 words)