/ 6 May 2011

Zuma plot fallout continues

Zuma Plot Fallout Continues

ANC national executive committee member Billy Masetlha has become the first senior ruling party member to openly say the alleged plot to oust Jacob Zuma as ANC president next year is real.

“I know who they are talking to and how they want to do this. I am not going to keep quiet and watch people destroying the organisation,” he told the Mail & Guardian.

Masetlha spoke out on Thursday, on the same day that Tokyo Sexwale, the human settlements minister and also an NEC member, addressed a press conference in Pretoria at which he rubbished the allegations implicating him in the plot.

Sexwale, who appeared upset, said he had instructed a legal team to investigate independently the origin of the plot allegations and advise him.

The public declarations by the two ANC leaders indicate that the plot allegations may be far more serious than the ruling party initially thought when it dismissed them out of hand.

Sexwale expressed disappointment that state agencies were used to compile the report, which he called a “fabrication”. The report was compiled by Lieutenant General Richard Mdluli, the head of the crime intelligence division of the police.

“I cannot believe that this government was involved, that senior ANC people were involved and that R200 000 was paid for this,” he said. While it had bothered him that he had not been told of the report, despite Zuma having had it for six months, Sexwale said he understood matters of intelligence should be kept secret. The ANC reacted with anger to Sexwale’s media address, and particularly to his unhappiness about Zuma not having warned him about Mdluli’s report.

“Comrade President Jacob Zuma cannot be held to account for applying his mind on how best and when to respond to an intelligence report. No one can hold him to account for that,” said ANC spokesperson Brian Sokutu.

He said allegations that some senior government officials knew about the report should be dismissed with the contempt it deserved.

“Having already expressed our opinion on the matter, we find it hard to understand that a member of the national executive committee of the ANC would speak on the matter still under investigation by the state and the ANC,” Sokutu said.

Intelligence reports
Sexwale said at the briefing that it was not the first time that he had heard about the alleged plot report. “When you hear this thing you take it as something that will just come and go. Nobody has ever claimed [ownership of] the rumour.

“What we did not know is that the report [implicates] senior ANC leaders, Richard Mdluli and [the Glenn] Agliottis of this world.” He said he had discussed the report with some people in the ANC and knew that many more similar alleged intelligence reports were likely to follow.

Although the ANC dismissed the allegations as “baseless” and “very misleading” after they were publicised, Masetlha gave the impression that the matter was a major issue in the party. “There is talk all over the structures of the ANC. There are individuals who are involved. There is no smoke without fire,” he said.

Sexwale’s decision to call a media briefing three weeks after the allegations surfaced, and were addressed by both himself and the ANC in the media, raises questions of how seriously the ruling party takes the allegations.

Masetlha said Sexwale was correct to distance himself publicly from the alleged plot and that the ANC should support him. “He [Sexwale] has to condemn it in the strongest terms possible. He has to sue,” he said.

The former intelligence chief volunteered to dedicate his personal time and resources to “get to the bottom” of the allegations. “I never had time to look deep into these allegations, but after elections I’m going to do serious work in investigating what’s going on,” said Masetlha.

He said the plot allegations were “mischief of the highest order” and could harm both the ANC and government. “If anyone plots against the state, they must be taken to task,” he said.

The alleged crime intelligence report included names of ANC leaders known to be Zuma loyalists such as KwaZulu-Natal premier Zweli Mkhize and national police commissioner Bheki Cele.

However, Masetlha dismissed this as a “deviation” and “a deliberate attempt to mislead the public so that whatever comes out looks like it’s not real. “I know for sure that only two of the seven names are real. I’m sceptical about several names.”

Other ANC high-ups named include ANC NEC members Jeff Radebe, Mathews Phosa, Thandi Modise, Bathabile Dlamini, Fikile Mbalula, Cassel Mathale, David Mabuza, Tony Yengeni, Julius Malema, Enoch Godongwana and Paul Mashatile.

On Thursday Malema, the ANC Youth League president, told the M&G the league would not waste its time talking about something that is a “deliberate fabrication” intended to cause conflict among ANC leaders. Malema said the allegations were intended to divert the ANC’s focus from campaigning for this month’s local government elections.

Sexwale’s Mvelaphanda Group has also threatened legal action. Mvelaphanda’s chairman, Mikki Xayiya, said the group’s name had been tarnished by the report’s reference to the alleged plotters as “the Mvela group”.

Asked if he would still support Zuma for a second term next year, Sexwale said he had never opposed a second term but it was up to ANC members to decide. He also said that no one had forced him to deny the alleged plot publicly through a press conference.

Sexwale said that this was not the first time that he has been implicated in a plot to oust a sitting ANC president. “Mathews Phosa, Cyril Ramaphosa and myself were all linked to rumours of a coup against the ANC and South African President Thabo Mbeki.” However, what was strikingly different about the Mdluli report was that “rumour has a return address”.

Sexwale wants his investigating team to establish:

  • Who Mdluli reports to and who provided resources such as money, offices, equipment and logistics;
  • Whether Mdluli or other officers colluded with any politicians or government officials; and
  • Whether Mdluli would be prepared to come clean about the true origins and motives of the alleged plot report.