Carl Niehaus raises his ugly head again
Carl Niehaus, that odious little con-artist, liar, poseur and former star spin-doctor for the ANC, has slithered out of whatever slime hole he had disappeared into. Having been caught out in a litany of lies earlier this year and losing his job in the most public of ways, I thought that even he wouldn’t dare stick his ugly head up again. But this is South Africa and I guess he thought that if its people were stupid enough to elect a president who has hundreds of unanswered charges of fraud and corruption against him and has shown to have been in a corrupt relationship with a convicted fraudster, then they would accept him back with open arms.
And he was right. The cry of “give him another chance!” is ringing out on radio stations and in the press. We know why, of course. He is an ANC “cadre” and has done serious jail time for anti-Apartheid activities. That is of course the current get-out-of-jail card.
But the main reason being given seems to be one of forgiveness, particularly since he “confessed” his sins. The true Christian spirit, and all that. The problem is that his so-called confessions are not worth the spittle that flows so liberally from his lying lips. I would be extremely surprised if he is not a psychopath. When the story first broke, John Robbie asked him if the allegations against him at the time were the full extent of his fraudulent activities. He assured him that they were. In the week or two following that, new stories of his graft appeared daily. And whenever confronted by a new allegation, well… another lie.
I have been aware of this creep for some time – way before the story reached the public domain. A friend, who I shall call Dan, confided in me how he had been conned by Niehaus. The way he told the story led me to believe anyone would have been taken in. He used personal warmth and exuded honesty and integrity. He covered all the bases – the fraud was well thought out and was completely plausible. He didn’t get the money and run away. No, he would pre-emptively come and see Dan, look him in the eye and blatantly lie – before Dan suspected anything was wrong. As Dan told me: “Defrauding my company was one thing, but he made this personal”. Dan later found out that he had used the same modus, the same set of lies to defraud a number of other businessmen, forcing at least one of them into bankruptcy.
But here he stands, contrite in front of the nation, grovelling for another chance. He acknowledges owing hundreds of thousands. Another lie: he owes millions. And according to a radio report, he was the expensively dressed and arrived in a luxury car.
I do think he deserves another chance – another chance in jail.
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