Allies: Former state security minister David Mahlobo, embattled ANC secretary general Ace Magashule and former president Jacob Zuma. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)
President Cyril Ramaphosa and his supporters in the ANC appear — for now — to have gained the upper hand over the faction led by secretary general Ace Magashule.
A last-ditch attempt by Magashule to delay or derail the party’s stand-aside rule — by broadening those who should step aside to include members accused of corruption but not facing charges, rather than leaving them to the ANC’s integrity commission to deal with — has failed.
The Magashule faction has also begun laying criminal charges against key Ramaphosa backers — and the president — to try and force them to stand aside as well.
On Thursday they held a protest outside Luthuli House and are to take their campaign to defend Magashule to the streets as the stand-aside deadline at the end of April nears.
Magashule is out on bail on corruption charges stemming from the R250-million asbestos eradication tender in the Free State, allegedly looted by a group of ANC leaders and business people in the province.
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The secretary general and other party members facing corruption charges were given 30 days to stand aside by the national executive committee (NEC) at a meeting on 28 March or face suspension from the ANC.
The move by Magashule appears to have been aimed at trying to tie up Ramaphosa — who was to appear before the Zondo commission into state capture next week — and other leaders of his faction over allegations of corruption in the funding of the 2017 campaign to elect him ANC president. Ramaphosa, who will now appear at the commission on April 28, has been accused of corruption by several witnesses.
Former Eskom chief executive, Brian Molefe, earlier this year, told the commission that Ramaphosa had provided political protection for Glencore, a company in which he was a shareholder and which allegedly tried to extort R8-billion from the power utility. While deputy president, Ramaphosa chaired the Eskom war room, giving him direct influence over the state-owned entity, which Molefe claimed he abused on Glencore’s behalf.
And Black First Land First last August laid corruption charges against Ramaphosa over the alleged misuse of the R500-billion Covid-19 relief fund.
But the ANC’s national working committee (NWC) this week ignored Magashule’s step-aside intervention. It remained on track with its plan to implement a 30-day deadline against corruption charged members, of which Magashule is the most senior, in line with its resolutions.
The NWC re-emphasised the NEC decisions, a clear response to Magashule’s going off-script in his letters to ANC provincial and regional secretaries last week.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, the NWC said it “recalled” the decision of the NEC that “all members who have been charged with corruption or other serious crimes must step aside within 30 days, failing which they should be suspended in terms of Rule 27.70 of the ANC constitution”.
The NWC also “noted”’ that provinces had been requested to compile a list of “the names of those members who have been charged with corruption or other serious crimes” and inform these members of the NEC decision.
Further noting that provinces had been asked to make comments on implementing the stand-aside guidelines, the NWC said this process would now be coordinated by a team of officials led by treasurer general Paul Mashatile.
Magashule, it said, would spend the 30-day period consulting the party’s elders, as agreed by the NEC.
The NWC statement was accompanied by a copy of the 14-page step-aside guidelines, which were endorsed by the NEC last month.
The NWC’s response is a blow to Magashule and his supporters in the so-called radical economic transformation faction, who were also ordered by the NEC to stop running parallel structures and using party resources and facilities for RET activities.
Last weekend ANC started its branch general meetings, which will elect leadership and delegates ahead of the more than 20 ANC provincial and regional conferences scheduled for the coming months.
It now appears that Magashule, who on Thursday was set to meet former president Jacob Zuma to discuss the stand-aside rule, will be forced to sit out the important conference cycle, which is historically overseen by the ANC secretary general.
Magashule’s supporters and allies beyond the ANC appear to be broadening their strategy to start laying criminal charges against key leaders of the Ramaphosa faction so that they are also forced to stand aside ahead of key elective party conferences around the country.
On Wednesday, the Economic Freedom Fighters deputy president, Floyd Shivambu, laid corruption charges against Pravin Gordhan, a key Ramaphosa ally. The previous day Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng, during Judicial Service Commission interviews, had disclosed that Gordhan had inquired about how Judge Dhaya Pillay had fared in an earlier interview with the JSC.
Gordhan said in a letter to the secretary of the JSC that he had asked Mogoeng about Pillay’s interview “in passing” at a meeting with the chief justice to discuss other matters.
“As I recall, after the completion of the cordial discussion with the chief justice in April 2016, I did, in passing, refer to Judge Dhaya Pillay’s interview with the JSC to fill positions for the supreme court of appeal,” Gordhan said in a statement. “The chief justice responded. I then left. The inquiry about Judge Pillay was purely incidental to the purpose of the meeting. Any misrepresentation, wilfully or not, of the 6 April, 2016 meeting with the chief justice by political actors who want to defend state capture and corruption, is highly regrettable.”
On Wednesday, leaks emerged of a criminal case for intimidation being laid against Transport Minister, Fikile Mbalula, by a transport operator from Limpopo who Mbalula had allegedly threatened for branding taxis in support of Magashule and corruption accused ANC provincial treasurer Danny Msiza.
On Tuesday, IOL reported that a Reserve Bank shareholder, Fanie Fondse, had laid charges of corruption and racketeering against Ramaphosa over the award of a contract to build two schools in the Free State by Shanduka in 2015.
Ramaphosa was a majority shareholder in the Shanduka Group. He disinvested from Shanduka in 2014.
Mbalula’s spokesperson, Ayanda Allie-Paine, said the ministry would not comment.
Police spokesperson Vishnu Naidoo said they were not aware of any case involving Mbalula.
Presidency spokesperson Tyrone Seale had not responded to calls from the M&G at the time of publication.
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