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THEREs an intriguing theory that gets hauled out every time Jacob Zumas son/confidante/lawyer/butcher/baker/candlestick-maker is unmasked as the beneficiary of some business deal or other.

And that is, Zuma himself doesnt know this is happening. He isnt ordering the deployment of his cronies into positions of influence, the theory goes, as part of a calculated empire-building strategy of the masterminds behind Zuma Inc.

Rather, it is the companies themselves who are trying to ingratiate themselves with him of their own volition, perhaps in expectation that some day theyll be able to call in a favour.

The Guptas, for example, might claim that Zuma has ordered their inclusion in a specific deal, but thats just them name-dropping: its not as if the man from Nkandla is actually giving these sorts of orders.

Its an interesting theory, especially given the number of Zuma-linked people who just happened to end up on the shareholder list of Invictus, Gold Fields BEE shareholder.

Gold Fields, you might remember, gave the BEE shareholding to Invictus in a deal put together by former convict Gayton McKenzie in 2010. In its circular for that deal, Gold Fields said it wanted to reward those who had helped bring democracy to the country and who had not been the beneficiaries of BEE to date.

The full list of 72 shareholders of Invictus was only released this week. For no apparent reason, Gold Fields suddenly decided to reveal these names. (The identity of these beneficiaries was briefly released to shareholders in 2010 then removed, bizarrely).

All it took was a mountain of criticism in recent days over the poor governance of keeping such a list secret, a disagreement with its former chair over how the deal was put together, complaints from BEE shareholders that the money wasnt coming through and, voil, Gold Fields does the right thing and publishes the list.

It would be churlish to castigate Gold Fields now, despite its snippy press release entitled Invictus names again released in which it points out, rather huffily, that it did release the names to shareholders at the time of the (deal) in 2010.

Anyway, looking down the list, you see Jerome Brauns SC, who represented Jacob Zuma during his rape trial - one of the names disclosed from the start.

Go here to read the rest:
LAST WORD : Invictus list shows Zuma connections