Ahmed Mostafa, the author of Heartbreak & Other States once said: ‘I gradually fell from grace; alas, you dove in headfirst.” 

Those, like suspended national police commissioner Fannie Mase-mola, Lieutenant General Dumisani Khumalo and Brigadier Dineo Mokwele, who have probably fallen victim to the scheming of former Independent Directorate Against Corruption (Idac) head advocate Andrea Johnson, are invoking Mostafa after this week’s drama at the Madlanga Commission.

There, the only thing Johnson achieved was to dig a deeper grave for herself. No one ensconced themselves as snuggly into the Newsmaker of the Week nook as Johnson did with her inarticulation and obfuscation during her six days under scrutiny.

Her testimony pointed to an Idac conspiracy to throw mud on the character of otherwise upstanding police officers and the new recruit, Mokwele, who was dubbed a token even before Johnson and her ilk had bothered to peruse her CV.

Mokwele, in the infinite wisdom of the disgraced Johnson and her henchmen, was guilty by association. In one of her most bizarre lapses, Johnson admitted that Mokwele was arrested because there was a possibility she could commit a crime. Not even the most creative of comedians are able to conjure such a script.

A key member of the prosecuting team alongside legal hawk advocate Gerrie Nel, who successfully argued the sentencing of Blade Runner Oscar Pistorius in the infamous Valentine’s Day murder of Reeva Steenkamp, Johnson came highly recommended for the Idac job.

Idac’s formation was mooted in 2019 after the Zondo Commission investigations had been laid bare and a unit to probe serious high-profile corruption cases was sought.

At the time, Johnson was the poster child of throwing the book at celebrity lawbreakers. Little did anyone know that she would emerge as the ani-thesis of the promise she epitomised. Her relationship with rogue elements she was tasked with whipping back into line, beleaguered Crime Intelligence boss Feron Kahn among them, ended in a lovey-dovey tragi-comedy.

She wilted under evidence leader advocate Mahlape Sello’s cross-examination. She was gracious enough not to drive Johnson into shaming herself even further and bringing Idac into worse disrepute.

The beauty of the tragedy that is Johnson is that those she had connived to impugn will be exonerated while she rides, with her head down, into the hall of ignominy.

For those whose careers she had meant to confine to the dustbin of shame, they are going Mostafa on her: she dove headfirst into oblivion.

More importantly, her fall from grace is another feather in the cap of the Madlanga Commission and its efficacy.