Rational Perspective

I last saw Valence Watson more than a decade ago when acting as peacemaker in a meeting between my former colleague, the late Barry Sergeant, and a group of BEE investors in the now de-listed gold company Simmer and Jack. After that meeting, the great investigative journalist spent time getting to know Valence and his brothers, the now apparently infamous Watson clan from the Eastern Cape. It’s instructive that Barry's initial hostility and deep scepticism went full circle – first in the story that I was mediating over, and, later, on a broader scale. In his excellent book about whistleblower Kevin Wakeford who exposed how Deutsche Bank trashed the South African Rand, Barry wrote warmly about the Watsons. I knew the uniquely talented Sergeant literally from the day he entered journalism in the mid 1980s. We worked closely for years and I remain in awe of this trained advocate’s ability to dispense with the fiction and question perceived facts.  There is no doubt in my mind that were Barry alive, he’d be p