Black First Land First's Andile Mngxitama has denied responsibility for the blackout at Jacques Pauw's book launch, saying that it was "the black god" who acted on his behalf.
Conspiracy theorists are running rampant with speculation about who could've switched the power off at Pauw's Johannesburg book launch on Wednesday night. His book, "The President's Keepers", reveals several scandals involving President Jacob Zuma and his cronies, including the State Security Agency. Was it Eskom that shut down the launch? State Security agents? Black First Land First (BLF)?
Most of the theories centre on BLF's role in the blackout, which came after Mngxitama sent out a tweet on Wednesday morning, claiming the "BLF is organising a nice surprise for the author of #ThePresidentsKeepers nice little one (sic)."
Mngxtima followed his statement up with a series of tweets about the event -- most of them celebrating the blackout -- and another that seemed to claim responsibility for the event.
In it he said: "More small pretty surprises prepared for #ThePresidentsKeepers author. Small little pretty things. 1000 settlers last night saw darkness."
But, speaking to HuffPost SA on Thursday morning, Mngxitama denied responsibility, claiming instead that the "black god" acted on BLF's behalf.
"I was praying that something like this would happen. Our message about that man [Pauw] is very clear, so we said, 'God, do something for us tonight', and our black god answered," he said.
Earlier, Mngxitama had warned his followers about trusting the contents of the book, which has become the fastest-selling South African title to date. Attempts by the State Security Agency to ban the controversial book ironically fueled public interest in it.
The book claims, among other things, that a top-secret state-intelligence programme had allegedly guzzled as much as R1-billion of taxpayers' money in just three years, and that intelligence operatives were used to get Zuma off the hook on 783 counts of fraud, corruption and racketeering.
"'The President's Keepers' is not a book, it's a joke. It's a propaganda campaign to undermine radical economic transformation, so we prayed to our god to act on our behalf," Mngxitama told HuffPost SA.
"I can assure you more are coming as well (sic)."