/ 20 February 2017

Brian Molefe MP nomination will damage ANC ahead of 2019 elections – SACP North West

Both Dr Pathmanathan Naidoo and Eskom CEO Brian Molefe responded to the public protector's report on Friday.
Both Dr Pathmanathan Naidoo and Eskom CEO Brian Molefe responded to the public protector's report on Friday.

The nomination of former Eskom CEO Brian Molefe to Parliament has divided the tripartite alliance, with the SACP in the North West province labelling the move “wrong, problematic and unprocedural”.

SACP secretary Madoda Sambatha said the nomination would damage the ANC’s image ahead of the crucial 2019 elections.

Molefe resigned from Eskom after the public protector’s State of Capture report found that he had made numerous phone calls to the Gupta family and visited their home in Saxonworld.

He dismissed the findings and told the media he might have been visiting a “shebeen” in the area instead. But he was ridiculed when the shebeen was not found.

“It will dent the ANC’s image toward the 2019 elections. Molefe resigned because of the State of Capture report’s findings, whether right or wrong, he was implicated. He also told South Africa that he went to a shebeen that does not exist,” Sambatha told News24.

Sambatha has accused the ANC of giving Molefe special treatment. He said the nomination did not go through the ANC deployment committee that includes alliance partners from the SACP and Cosatu but was made by provincial officials instead.

Shock over resignation
He said the SACP in the North West was not consulted before the nomination, as is tradition, or after the decision had been made, instead they learnt of the nomination through media reports.

“We will never support it because it is wrong.

“The fellows have appropriated to themselves, exclusively, the ‘prerogative’ to change lists, even without involving the provincial deployment committee,” Sambatha said.

The SACP said Molefe’s nomination is another sign that the ANC only takes alliance partners seriously when it needs them to campaign for elections but excludes them on key decisions after the elections.

“We were shocked that there is a person who has already resigned to create space for Brian. They can take him to Parliament it’s fine… but we are saying we must not be counted as party to that,” Sambatha said.

The ANC in North West has defended its decision to nominate Molefe to the National Assembly and has dismissed allegations that he was neither a resident of the province nor a member of the party’s Ward 29 branch in Hartbeespoort.

Cabinet reshuffle speculation
But Sambatha poked holes in the North West ANC’s argument that Molefe was nominated after Abram Mudau voluntarily resigned.

Sambatha said it was ironic that all the people whose names come after Mudau’s on the party’s list would have also turned down the opportunity to go to Parliament.

The SACP has accused provincial chair Supra Mahumapelo of unilaterally taking the decision and imposing it.

“The ANC provincial chairperson highlighted the deployment change in his political input at the last ANC PEC lekgotla. But his political input was not open to discussion. This new tradition in the province does not fit in with the principles of internal democracy,” Sambatha said.

Molefe is due to be sworn in as Member of Parliament this week, amidst speculation that a Cabinet reshuffle is imminent and President Jacob Zuma will include him in his Cabinet.

The SACP in Limpopo has also condemned the nomination following its provincial executive committee meeting.

“The appointment of Mr Brian Molefe to represent the ANC as an MP strengthens the public outcry about corruption and the capture of the state by the parasitic bourgeoisie. This SACP views this with deem light. This is against specifically the principle of legality where someone is fingered in corruption [a] report and at the same time promoted.”

The ANC’s uMkhonto weSizwe Military Veterans’ Association has backed Molefe for a “government deployment”. Chairperson Kebby Maphatsoe told News24 that given Molefe’s previous experience at Treasury, Transnet and Eskom, among others, he would serve the country well.

It also dismissed the public protector’s State of Capture report as politically motivated. – News24