Winnie Madikizela-Mandela has warned the ANC of further repercussions concerning its involvement with Sol Kerzner. Gaye Davis reports
AFRICAN NATIONAL CONGRESS Women’s League president Winnie Madikizela-Mandela has warned the ANC of “further bruising” concerning Sol Kerzner’s relationship with the organisation in a letter to Deputy President Thabo Mbeki.
Axed deputy minister of environment affairs Bantu Holomisa cited the letter in his submission to the ANC disciplinary committee hearing on Wednesday, which was postponed until Saturday after its chairman, Water Affairs and Forestry Minister Kader Asmal, recused himself.
Madikizela-Mandela wrote the letter to Mbeki on July 10 after being informed by the ANC’s treasurer general and chief whip, the Reverend Arnold Stofile, that the league’s head office activities had been “frozen”.
In the letter Madikizela-Mandela claims the action was taken to “destabilise the provinces” to sabotage the League’s Women’s Day celebrations on August 9 – — and also because the organisation came out in support of Holomisa.
“It is imperative for us to be told in black and white why we are being punished for supporting a comrade,” Mandela wrote.
She then says: “It is critical for this organisation not to handle an issue of this nature in this manner, especially as it involves Sol Kerzner ultimately. The organisation will not survive further bruising in this manner and I think some people who took part in this decision will know what I am talking about.”
It is this paragraph Holomisa cited in his submission, saying events around Kerzner’s ANC contribution — initially vehemently denied by the organisation, then confirmed by President Nelson Mandela — had been “characterised by the attempts of the leadership to influence me to drop the charges”. He contended the pressure he was being subjected to had a “symbiotic relationship with my failure or refusal to accede to the `request’ to drop or `expedite’ the case against Sol Kerzner, hence my assertion that there is a conflict of interest”.
Holomisa said Madikizela-Mandela was a member of the ANC’s national working committee (NWC), which found — ahead of Mandela’s confirmation of Kerzner’s donation — that Holomisa’s allegations were “blatantly false, malicious and defamatory”.
In his submission, Holomisa asked: “The key question here is, did the president of the Women’s League know about the confirmed R2-million contribution to the ANC or is she referring to other contributions which we might not be aware of?”
Madikizela-Mandela refused to comment this week, but in her letter to Mbeki she says she wonders whether the action against the league would have been contemplated had it “been under another leadership of some people’s choice.
“There seems to be a continued problem with differentiating between the organisational policies, the government and personal agendas.”
She says the freezing of the league’s head office activities is viewed as part of an “orchestrated campaign” to discredit league national executive members “further fuelling divisions and cliques we now observe under this style of leadership”.
Holomisa, meanwhile, will attend the ANC’s national executive committee (NEC) meeting, which starts this friday. This is when the hearing of the six charges against him will reconvene.
Holomisa insists his removal as deputy minister is “inextricably woven” with his testimony before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, where he referred to public enterprises minister Stella Sigcau taking a R50 000 cut of a bribe paid by Kerzner to George Matanzima, then president of the Transkei.
The ANC has said the complaint is not that he gave evidence, but that he publicly accused a fellow ANC NEC member of corruption “on a distorted set of facts” without first raising it within ANC structures and subsequently publicly snubbed the ANC, its senior leaders and its disciplinary committee without first raising his grievances internally.
The new charges relate to further violations of the “basic principle of the ANC”, that its members should not make public accusations or complaints against the organisation, its leaders or members without first doing so within party structures. He is also accused of conducting himself in a manner which has brought the ANC into disrepute.
In his submission, Holomisa said he suspected his appearance before the committee was “just a formality”, as there was wide speculation that its outcome would be his expulsion from the ANC. He said the ANC Youth League, of which Mbeki was the patron, had already called for his expulsion, and handed in a Sowetan article quoting unnamed ANC leaders who question Holomisa’s motives and signal a clear message that “Holomisa must go”. The article, Holomisa claimed, was based on an interview the reporter had with Mbeki on August 12.
“So you can see a decision has been taken already to expel me from the organisation and in the process [be] discredited,” Holomisa’s submission said.
While some commentators have seen Asmal’s recusal as a victory for the beleaguered Holomisa, enabling him to once again set the terms, Asmal made it clear he believed he had said nothing to prejudge the case against Holomisa. He had recused himself because “the appearance of fairness and impartiality is as important as the reality”, he told the Mail & Guardian.
The minister of Public Service and Administration, Zola Skweyiya, who has a doctorate in law, will chair the committee, while Trade and Industry minister Alex Erwin presents the case against Holomisa. Other members of the committee are Health Minister Nkosazana Zuma, and NEC members Ruth Mompati and Wilton Mkwayi. Zuma was not present at the NWC meeting which decided Holomisa was a liar for saying Kerzner had given the party funds and any bid to have her recuse herself is likely to fail.