South Africa

There's been an elephant sitting in the room for too long now. When I first read about the Jay-Z rape allegation a week ago, my first reaction was to dismiss it as a bit of sensationalist coverage by the boys at the Suntimes. However as the week developed the story has grown and now it seems that there definitely was a charge laid and an investigation is well under way :

The police this week asked Jacob Zuma for a sample of his blood to do DNA tests. This bombshell followed revelations that a complaint of rape had indeed been laid at the Hillbrow police station on November 4 and that a number had been assigned to the case. Although two sources confirmed to The Sunday Independent that Zuma had been approached for blood samples, the police remained silent on whether they were investigating the rape allegation.

 

 

I see also that as usual Zwele Mkize has been the man in the middle trying to defuse the situation. He really does seem to take some kind of perverse pleasure in riding on the coattails of Jay-Z as he lurches from one controversy to the next :

 

The complainant remained in protective custody. The woman's mother, who initially wanted the charge dropped, is now standing firmly behind her daughter. She apparently decided to do so even though the ANC's deputy chairperson in KwaZulu-Natal, Zweli Mkhize, reportedly tried to broker a settlement. Mkhize has not responded to calls for clarity, although his spokesperson has denied the claim. Impeccable sources have confirmed, however, that Mkhize, who is close to Zuma, was present at a meeting with the mother in Durban. One of the complainant's family homes in Durban is under guard.

 

 

But I digress, back to the matter at hand -- what the hell is going on? To be completely honest I am really getting a bit of Jay-Z burnout (even though he is an undisputed star on Someamoungus), this debacle is really getting out of hand and I can't really see it ending any time soon. Even blogging on it daily is not enough as the dynamic seems to completely shift every few hours, now with the rape allegation added into the mix I think most South Africans will be hard pressed to keep up with it all. At this stage I won't even attempt a guess as to whether the allegation is true or not, there is simply not enough information out in the open yet. What I do think though is that there is definitely more than meets the eye here and we will definitely be hearing more about it as the story develops. Where this fits into the whole "it's a conspiracy", is anyones guess -- there's so much disinformation and blowback out there that as it stands the whole matter is clear as mud!