The 2021 local government elections are a clear demonstration of the failure to manage internal disagreements, where many of the parties, civic movements and independent candidates that contested these local government elections are direct offshoots of the ANC. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)
A case of fraud, theft and contravening the Public Finance Management Act has been opened against President Cyril Ramaphosa with the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (the Hawks).
The Hawks confirmed to the Mail & Guardian that the case was now under investigation.
This may be the clearest sign yet of a fightback against Ramaphosa’s faction as the ANC’s national executive committee (NEC) is set to discuss the “step-aside” resolution soon.
The investigation into the president comes as a result of former Eskom chief executive Brian Molefe’s testimony at the Zondo commission into state capture.
During his testimony at the commission, Molefe blamed Ramaphosa for some of Eskom’s woes. Molefe testified that the president sold out the power utility and the country for his personal benefit. Molefe said Eskom’s real problems stemmed from Ramaphosa’s support for mining giant Glencore, which sought to extort R8-billion from the power utility after it bought the Optimum Coal Mine and tied itself into a disadvantageous coal-supply contract without due diligence.
In an interview with EWN in January, Ramaphosa said there were many untruths in Molefe’s testimony, adding that “he would respond to the real facts and deal with them”.
Ramaphosa’s spokesperson, Tyrone Seale, said the president was not aware of any charges laid against him as a result of Molefe’s testimony at the Zondo commission.
“The president has not received any communication from the Hawks about any investigation”, he said, adding that Ramaphosa was “not concerned about any investigation” about “his business dealings during the period he was in business.”
The charge against Ramaphosa is unlikely to move the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to prosecute the president, and an indictment is not currently planned.
For now, Molefe’s statement to the Zondo commission remains mere conjecture, said sources in the NPA.
They explained that evidence leaders had not questioned Molefe because on the day he appeared, Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo received word that a staff member had tested positive for Covid-19, and therefore adjourned the sitting to go into self-isolation.
Nor has Ramaphosa had an opportunity to cross-examine Molefe, or to answer to the allegations, though it is expected that he will do so when he does take the witness stand at the commission, as he has vowed to do.
“The NPA has, while carrying out its own investigations into those implicated in state capture, been respectful of the commission’s work, as the timing of Magashule’s prosecution shows. It waited to indict him and his co-accused in the asbestos audit scandal until after the commission had completed its hearings into the matter,” said a source.
Ramaphosa is expected to testify at the Zondo commission before it concludes hearings at the end of March.
Meanwhile, in an affidavit seen by the M&G, Ernest Netshivhumbe, who laid the criminal charge, states that Molefe implicated Ramaphosa in serious acts of theft and corruption.
He adds that Molefe further testified that the president, as chair of the Eskom War Room in his capacity as the deputy president at the time, unduly used his political influence to his benefit and extended financial benefit to Glencore, pressuring Eskom executives to write off its debt of R1-billion.
“I am resolute that Mr Ramaphosa and Glencore are guilty of the crime of fraud, theft and contravening the Public Finance Management Act, act 1 of 1999 as well as other crimes which may possibly be unearthed during the investigation,” Netshivhumbe wrote.
The factional battles in the ANC are expected to take centre stage when its NEC meets on 13 February.
Guidelines for the “step-aside” resolution will be adopted at the meeting, which may mean that political leaders facing criminal charges, corruption allegations and allegations of bringing the party into disrepute may have to step aside.
The “step-aside” resolution is the smoking gun that the detractors of ANC secretary general Ace Magashule are hoping to use to get him out of the party’s Luthuli House headquarters. Magashule faces the axe after the integrity commission recommended that he step aside or face suspension due to his legal battles in the Free State.
Magashule has, however, indicated on several occasions that he has no intention of stepping aside, saying that only a special conference can remove him.
Magashule will appear in the dock at the Bloemfontein high court this month on charges of fraud, money laundering, corruption and racketeering.
The Hawks’ investigation and possible charges against Ramaphosa will be the counterattack needed by Magashule’s supporters to turn the tables around at this month’s NEC.
“If the secretary general is suspended because he will not step aside, it makes no sense why the president cannot be questioned on charges against him,” one NEC member and a close ally of Magashule told the M&G. “He must also do the right thing, remove himself from his position, address the allegations by Molefe and only then can he return as an ANC president. We can’t have rules that apply to some and not all of us.”
During his media tour, Ramaphosa indicated that he would be willing to step aside if prompted by the integrity commission’s elders.
During his appearance with the party’s elders in December, however, the integrity commission’s chair George Mashamba lambasted Ramaphosa for seeking to meet it armed with lawyers and refusing to respond to the alleged buying of votes during his CR17 campaign for ANC presidency.
Mashamba also called out Ramaphosa for dodging the commission for 18 months. This was in contrast with what Ramaphosa had been preaching to party leaders, appealing to them to present themselves to the commission.
The clash between Ramaphosa and Magashule supporters will be further fuelled by former president Jacob Zuma’s defiance of the Constitutional Court ruling that he should appear before the Zondo commission.
In an open letter to the commission, Zuma said he was willing to go to jail rather than testify, adding that he was unfairly targeted by the commission and its chair, Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo.
This came as the ANC’s highest decision-making body, the NEC, of which Zuma is a de facto member, appealed for cooperation with the commission.
Although the ANC in the Eastern Cape resolved at its recent lekgotla that Zuma should be hauled before a disciplinary hearing or face suspension of his ANC membership, Magashule came to his defence, urging the media to “leave Zuma alone” and claiming that the former president had done nothing wrong.
Magashule called the Eastern Cape provincial executive committee “ill-disciplined and populist”.
Secretaries of four other provinces, including KwaZulu-Natal where Zuma enjoys his biggest support, called for Magashule and the ANC’s top six to intervene.
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