Suspended ANC secretary general Ace Magashule claims that his intended suspension of the party’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, was lawful.
Suspended ANC secretary general Ace Magashule believes the contest for all top six positions in the ruling party, including that of President Cyril Ramaphosa next year, will be a tough and bruising battle.
In a wide ranging interview with the Mail & Guardian, Magashule spoke openly about the state of the governing party and said there could be no unity within the ANC when “state organs are used to persecute party leaders”.
Magashule, who is currently facing a litany of charges relating to a R250-million asbestos roofing audit contract in the Free State, said he believed the Hawks (the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation) was worse than the disbanded Scorpions.
Magashule has been fighting to have the case against him dismissed. The Mail & Guardian previously reported how the Hawks and the FBI were involved in the investigation against him when they interviewed his former personal assistant, Moroadi Cholota, in the US where she is studying.
“You can’t continue talking about [ANC] unity when state organs are used to pursue people. What I am going through is not in isolation,” Magashule told the M&G.
“The top six agreed that the charges [against me ] were flimsy and the president himself said: ‘Find the best lawyers SG [secretary general], we can’t allow you to even spend a minute there.’ The year 2022 is going to be bumpy because there are going to be state organs used [against ANC leaders].”
[related_posts_sc article_id=”504044″]
He said the Zondo commission, which is due to deliver its report into state capture to Ramaphosa on 1 January, “is going to be used as a blind weapon for factional reasons and to keep us [suspended leaders] perpetually outside the ANC using the so-called step-aside [rule]”.
The rule stipulates that those facing criminal charges must step aside from their positions in the governing party.
“This time around, the ANC is forever divided,” said Magashule.
Ramaphosa has in the past told the party leadership that he expected the commission’s report would be scathing of the ANC, Timeslive reported.
Magashule said the opposition Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party could not be blamed for the ANC parliamentary caucus’ failure to pass a bill to amend Section 25 of the Constitution to allow for land expropriation without compensation.
Nor, he said, could the EFF and its leader Julius Malema be blamed for the ANC’s failure to reclaim control of metros in Gauteng in last month’s local government elections.
The ANC was left bruised when its parliamentary caucus could only master 204 votes of the 267 needed to pass the land bill. This was after the ruling party abandoned negotiations with the EFF over differences about custodianship of the land, and the current cut-off date of 19 June 1913 for the restitution of property. This was the date of the passing of the Natives Land Act, which stripped black people of existing land ownership and restricted them to ownership of less than 7% of South Africa.
‘Blame lies with ANC, not EFF’
“We can try and say to the South African public that the EFF must be blamed but … the EFF was right. The expropriation of land is our resolution and I don’t see why we could not work with the EFF on this,” Magashule said.
He also blamed ANC leaders for disagreements with the EFF that ultimately led to the governing party’s poor performance in the Gauteng metros.
Magashule spoke candidly of his part in the dramatic eThekwini mayoral election where he played an instrumental role in shifting the deck, resulting in the ANC once again claiming the city. The ANC had come close to losing eThekwini when smaller parties including the EFF banded together and announced they would elect officials from the main opposition Democratic Alliance.
Just hours before votes were cast, Magashule, along with former health minister Zweli Mkhize and former president Jacob Zuma, intervened and called in favours with former allies.
Magashule said a similar rescue attempt failed in Gauteng because ANC leaders would not meet the EFF’s demands.
“If it was not because of national [leaders], the ANC could still be in power here in Gauteng, working with the EFF. The EFF was ready … The EFF wanted to talk about principles. These are reasonable things and we share the same constituency, what is the problem? If we wanted to amend the Constitution, we would need the EFF,” he said.
[related_posts_sc article_id=”506242″]
Last month, as the ANC reeled from seeing its support plummet to 45.6% nationally in the municipal polls, the party’s head of elections, Fikile Mbalula, told the media that there were calls for the ANC’s national executive committee to resign. Mbalula said Ramaphosa’s popularity had saved the party’s support from plunging further to 30% nationally.
Magashule was scathing of Mbalula’s framing of the party’s performance.
“I hear Mbalula say we have not lost, we have declined. And I say what does decline mean?”
“If you are not in charge, if you are not in power, you have lost. You may want to say you are still the majority party elected, but it’s something else. The fact of the matter is that we are out of power, we are not in charge — and when you are not in power, you have lost.”
Magashule said the ANC’s current cohort of NEC members had failed in their mandate to unite and renew the party.
“I think we have failed to unite, including myself. We are still going to fail to unite because we are using state organs [to persecute party leaders], we are still factional. I think we are arrogant,” he said.
Asked whether he would avail himself for a top six position in next year’s elective conference, Magashule said he would leave that decision to ANC branches.
[/membership]