The news that Bashir Saleh Bashir, former chief of staff and reputed 'banker' to the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, was shot last Friday in Johannesburg has again raised questions about what he is doing in South Africa. Bashir was attacked when he arrived home from OR Tambo International Airport, diplomatic sources say. He survived what appeared to have been a common crime.
Yet government officials haven't confirmed the incident, apparently because Bashir is officially not in South Africa. He's in fact been living here for over five years. Bashir fled Tripoli as Gaddafi's government fell in 2011, going first to Niger and then to France, then coming to South Africa.
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