Podcast excerpt·FRI, 04 SEPT 2026 · 12:09:30–12:12:26 SAST
A short excerpt from After GHL, Pappas and Brink, is Clinton Lerm the DA's next household name? on BizNews Radio. Watermarked for fair-dealing attribution, free to share.
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Story to us about the attack from the Alliance of Citizens for Change president, Maasizole Nkransela, who was, I think, ex-DA at some point in time. And then he laid criminal charges against you with the hawks. What was that all about? Well, look, right from the bat, I've never had sleepless nights. I've got a, how can I put it? Yes, I know him very well. In fact, we were quite close friends at the
Stage when he was a speaker of the Western Co. Before me entering into politics. And I think that was the misperception: that once I was going to be in politics, I would be able to assist with certain projects, which I'm not going to never sell my soul. And that's a life motto of mine when somebody asks you for favors or asks you to assist with certain things that if it bothers, if it's not fair, if it's not just, if it's not legal, you definitely do not even venture into that area.
You mean ask for favors? What? Ask for favors. Like, for instance, there were land use issues and things like that that I needed to have a look at, which I clearly said it's unfortunately within the administration. The beauty about politics, Alec, if you start understanding politics, there's a cushion and a buffer around you. And that's your officials. Your officials. And that's why it's great in a DA municipality with officials that are, I won't say DA prone, but they know their laws and regulations very well. So it's quite quick and easy to say: listen, I'm unsure with what.
Asking me, it sounds a bit in a gray area. You're asking me for a piece of land for a family member or something. Rather, speak to the officials. Here's the email address and discuss it. And I think the relationship showered, and from there on, there was a bit of a problem. And then he opened up a political party. And then the political party obviously needed to start looking for the taller trees in the area. And of course, being a businessman, I wouldn't say I was an easy target, but I mean, it makes better for a
Of something because that narrative is far better than saying it's a politician that's doing something. And ultimately, the hawks came back with a report saying there was nothing to even consider. So, what did he accuse you of? He accused me of meddling into tenders. And the beauty about, once again, if you know the processes, no counselor is allowed in a tender process as easy as that. It's all done by the officials from the bidder education committee all the way to assigning the tender. And then the only
Place where a tender comes to at some stage is to counsel. And if you want to recuse yourself, then you recuse yourself from an item. If you feel there's an issue here, you'd rather recuse. And that's the process. It's actually very simple. The public that might have thought something was wrong, I can quite clearly tell you now, I think a lot of people's eyes have opened up about the political opportunism of just going to a layer case. It's not like the case that the DA is doing against the 10 municipal managers.
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