Politics and greed
“Thank you minister for meeting me…” Qhawe says as he extends his hand to greet the woman sitting in front of him at a very low profile but very neat coffee shop. The woman dressed in a nice two-piece suit with power heels worthy of authority interjects, “Mr. Nkosi, may I remind you that I am no longer the Minister of housing, so Hlengiwe is just fine?” she says with a measured smile. Qhawe smiles back with a nervous look.“Interesting place to meet” Hlengiwe says as she looks around this interesting coffee shop which is seemingly designed for people who wants to meet in a low-key environment.
Qhawe clears his throat, “uhmm I have to apologies Ms. Mbatha…” he says but is interrupted, “Hlengiwe, please and Siba, not Mbatha. I’m divorced, remember?” she says with a smile. Qhawe smiles back, “Hlengiwe, I apologies for this arrangement. I just felt we needed to meet where there are no prying eyes as it were” he smiles. As he attempts to continue, a waiter who is bringing them their coffee interrupts them. Qhawe looks at him and smiles.
“First of all I would like to say on behalf of my family and company, we are sorry for how things turned out with all the changes in the cabinet recently. I know it affected you and…” Hlengiwe interrupts him, “Mr. Nkosi, I appreciate your concern I really do but, this is politics. It is always bound to happen at some point. When there is soon going to be regime change, there is going to be pawns. It is out of anyone’s hands. We just have to look forward and move on to other things. Besides I’m with the intelligence now, heading the counter espionage division. I’ve always had a thing for the shadows,” she says with a smile. Qhawe seems embarrassed by this but Hlengiwe continues, “So, what is it that was so pressing I had to meet you in less inconspicuous places?”
“Well Hlengiwe I wanted to know if you have any idea who this guy is” Qhawe shows her a photo from the phone. Hlengiwe looks at the phone and pauses for a minute, “Who is he to you?” she hands him back the phone. “I’m not sure just yet, that is why I have asked to meet you.” Qhawe responds.
Hlengiwe sighs, “Look I will look into it and I will call you back later today if I find any information.” She stands up and shake hands with Qhawe and walks out the door.
***
It has been a week after Qhawe, Themba, Nothemba and Zinhle had a meeting at Nkosi’s house and everyone was out there looking for info as delegated. It’s the afternoon and Nothemba is preparing supper and the kids are over at Buhle’s house since it’s a Friday and maybe that’s what is needed in order to distance them from a volatile situation they are currently in.
A phone call comes through on Nothemba’s phone… “Hey Zinhle, unjani darling?... Oh great, I can’t wait to see you” she continues to listen, “Oh no darling, we were about to call you guys as well…yeah see you in a bit honey.” She hangs up.
“Honey” Nothemba shouts from the Kitchen and coming to the lounge room. “Zinhle and Themba are coming over. They have information that is vital. I may have change the menu just a little babe. Please get us a delicious wine from the cellar. I have a feeling it’s going to be a very long afternoon.”
Few hours later a knock on the door. Its Zinhle and Themba. Nothemba opens the door and greets them with cheer. Qhawe also comes over and hugs Zinhle and shakes Themba’s hand. They all move to the dining room. They have supper as normal, they crack jokes as normal and no talk of the situation that is happening even though with each one it is at the back of their minds it and is lingering.
When they were done, the ladies go to the kitchen and wash the dishes while the guys go sit by the pool area with glass of whiskey in their hands. These two couples are practically family. The level of trust between them makes it easy for them to open up about everything that is happening in their respective families.
“I didn’t see the kids, are they sleeping already?” Themba asks as he takes a sip of whiskey. “No they are with Buhle for the weekend.” Qhawe says as he takes a sip as well, “Does she know what is happening already?” Themba asks seemingly worried. “Don’t worry. We had to tell her so that she can pay attention and there is a security detail with her already. We can’t take any chances.” Qhawe says as he looks at his friend.
They are disrupted by the ladies calling them over. They all head to the study which has become their working place when they discuss this sensitive matter. It is a big room with computers, you’d be mistaken to think you have walked into a security intelligence agency with all the set up. They all sit down and seemingly edgy to get on with it. They want to have their lives back.
“So guys what do you have? What do we know about all this? Zinhle, what are your people coming up with?” Qhawe asks with some level of authority as when you see the general at work.
“Well…” Zinhle sighs and pause for a moment. She then goes to one of the big monitors and next to it she plugs a flash drive, “Guys, these are people we saw in the surveillance footages a while ago. I ran facial recognition on them all and did a cross match with other law enforcement agencies to see if any of them pops up.” A wide-eyed Nothemba asks, “Oh you can do that?” Zinhle smiles and says, “I work at the embassy darling, we have all the tools.” She winks at her husband who is proud.
“The one on the left is Thomas Mall” Zinhle continues, “He is the idiot who was following me a while back. And then we have Eric Sizana, and….” but she is interrupted by Nothemba, “Wait, this is the guy that was following me a while back at the mall.” She says but Zinhle interjects, “That darling will be Jack Murray. Then we have Arnold Kwezi and Ben Stigger.” Everyone is listening so attentively.
“Well so what do we know about them?” Qhawe asks curiously. “Well”, Zinhle jumps in, “We can’t link them with anything except that they have one thing in common.” she says and everyone is now wide-eyed, waiting to hear what she’s talking about. “They all work for the same company. A certain ‘Hawk Eye’, a security company which provides security detail for the rich and privileged. They also are contracted to big business companies to provide security and surveillance,” she says, to which Qhawe sighs, “who is the owner?” he asks keenly.
“No info on that.” Zinhle shrugs. “What’s wrong babe?” Nothemba asks as she brushes Qhawe's back. “Yeah man you look like you are about to drop a big bombshell. What is it?” Themba adds.
Qhawe stands up. “Minister Hlengiwe came back to me with some info. She sent me something.” He says as he puts a flesh drive in the monitor. “This is Mr. John Smith, Themba knows him. He is the guy who came with the Dann City offer.” They all look at him and desperate to hear more. “Yes and so?” asks a curious Themba. “This one” Qhawe points to the screen and turns the slide, “This is Luke Laughmberg, the brother of John Smith. The Hawk Eye company is registered in his name and…” he is interrupted, “Are these even their real names?” Nothemba asks in frustration. “Not a chance.” Themba says in annoyance, “We are looking at a front here. This is an intelligence agency, maybe off the books or rogue but clearly there is someone very powerful they are serving.”
Zinhle stands and shouts “Oh come on honey, why would spies be running surveillance on civilians who are not even terrorists or people of interest? That doesn’t make sense.” as she pours herself a glass of wine visibly frustrated. “I don’t know baby but truth is, we are competing with big business now and the capitalists are running the country and have many politicians in their pockets and we…” Themba says as he pours himself a stiff, “Like it or not, we are taking a piece of a pie that they feel it’s only allocated to the elite.”
Zinhle interrupts again with frustration and somewhat with fear, “oh come on…” she says but Qhawe decides to interrupt this debate, “oh okay, okay guys, calm down. Can I please continue with my debrief?” he says and everyone calms down.
“Smith owns the Cornerstone Build Industrial as we know but what we didn’t know is that he owns several companies that have ties with politicians, influential and prominent individuals whose views change the state our economy. It would seem that Smith's rise in power and connections enabled him to start this so called security company in his brother's name, which is a service provider for these politicians and powerful people in society.
According to minister Hlengiwe, these powerful people linked to Smith had a say in the reshuffle that saw her being removed as the minister of housing. Remember she was minister of small business before this portfolio. Hlengiwe is all about developing communities and the disadvantaged South Africans. She played hard ball with big business and well, you know what you get if you attempt that.” he concludes.
“So, what does that all mean exactly?” Zinhle asks with worry. “Well it actually means, not everyone was happy with Ikusasa Lesizwe Inc. getting this housing project tender. However, since they could not find any dirt on us, and with their attempts to lure us into cutting them in failing, they decided to set us up. In addition, more and more I am beginning to feel like that collapsed building was not an accidence.” Qhawe says to which they all node and all look like they are deep in thought.
“Someone wanted this to become sensational news, which would eventually lead to the invoices that procured the new material.” He continues while pours himself a double, “Those invoices led to my suspension with Dan holding the fort.” He goes silent for a moment, “You know what, let me make a call,” he storms out of the room and living everyone confused.
“Arg…damn it,” Themba shouts, “What’s wrong honey?” asks Zinhle curiously. “Demit, how did I not see this all along?” Themba says again. Everyone is confused, “What are you talking about Themba?” Nothemba asks with worry.
“Monica and I were checking on all employees and cross referencing with their previous jobs and calls they made etc.” … “Yes” says Zinhle. “Two of our employees had this Hawk Eye on their CV’s.” Themba says. Everyone is wide- eyed. “One of them is HR administrator and one is security guard.” He stands up and walks around, and everyone is shocked. He continues, “Another thing, when we cross referenced all employee calls, I recognize this number." he says as he points to the monitor.
“The security company contact number?” asks Nothemba, “Whose calls were that from?” she looks anxiously “Dan’s” Themba says as he sighs, “bastard” he shouts. However, he is interrupted by Qhawe who comes in from outside.
Qhawe, in quietness picks up the glass and pours himself a double and then downs it in one go. Everyone looks at him in amazement. “Baby where were you? What happened? What’s wrong?” Nothemba asks but Qhawe sits down as he shakes his head. Everyone looks at him in confusion. “I was on the phone with Phakathi, our employee representative and media liaison officer.
Guess what, Mkhulisi didn’t die as a result of the injury sustained during the building collapse.” He says.
Everyone in unison pick up their glasses and poring their choice of poison. They look at Qhawe who continues, “The autopsy report shows he died of heart attack.” “What?” everyone exclaims in shock. “That’s not all” Qhawe says.
“There were marks of strangling around his neck. We need the Hospital footage around the time of his reported passing, to see who visited Mkhulisi that Monday. Who knows, maybe one of these guys we have identified may have been the guy to finish him off.” Everyone now looks terrified. They continue to discuss this for a while and everyone looks exhausted from all the revelations.
By the look of things, this was just the tip of the iceberg. “Guys, guys don’t you think this is way above our pay grade? Shouldn’t we be consulting the police? I mean this is now a homicide.” Nothemba says with worry.
“Baby, no, no.” Qhawe interrupts her, “We are entangled in the dark world of espionage, these people don’t play by the rules, and they are often connected with police. The more people are involved the more people will get hurt because these spooks do not care whom they hurt to protect their deeds.” he says. Themba adds, “Qhawe is right we cannot involve the police.
Those folks cannot be trusted. They can easily be bribed.” he says. They all nod in agreement.
“Besides,” Zinhle adds, “These guys couldn’t imagine we can put the pieces together. The more they think we know nothing the better chances of us surviving.” They all agree. They decide to call it a night and agree to continue in the morning since it is a Saturday.
***
“Hey morning boet.” Themba greets Qhawe who is sitting by the pool reading the paper. He turns around, “Hey man, you slept okay?” Themba and Zinhle slept over since they worked on this until late. Zinhle and Nothemba are making breakfast in the kitchen. They too look exhausted from all that is happening but it is helping that they are together to have girl talks because Nothemba worries about her kids. She needs a woman talk under these circumstances.
“Man I didn’t sleep a wink. It feels like we are in a movie.” Themba says as he sits down “yeah it will be over soon because we now know what we are dealing with.” Qhawe says, assuring his friend.
“Oh I almost forgot, when you went out last night to make a call, we discovered that three of our employees made contact with this bogus security company. One of those is Dan.” Themba says as he wipes his face. Qhawe sighs “why am I not surprised? There is no way this would have been pulled off without inside help. So we now have sleeper agents in our company.” he says with a worried face.
They are interrupted by the ladies calling them for breakfast.
After they ate breakfast, they get into business, putting all pieces together.
Much later on, they get the confirmation they needed: one of these operatives was indeed at the hospital to see Mkhulisi. Qhawe is using his connection with Hlengiwe very well and she is happy to help. One thing has become clear to them; this is only the beginning of trouble. If Smith ever sense that they are snooping around and trying to get to the bottom of this, he will use every resource at his disposal to make their lives a living hell. Now the question is, are they willing to sacrifice it all for the truth?
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