Mbete to Zuma’s rescue

The appointment of ANC national chairperson Baleka Mbete to run the political committee in Parliament will be the first step in winning over ANC MPs to support the quest to defend ANC president Jacob Zuma.

Mbete will replace Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota, who is the current chairperson of this powerful committee. She is tipped to become the new leader of government business, a position currently held by Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.

The rest of this committee is expected to be packed with Zuma supporters.

‘Taking over the political committee is a way to entice people with positions to be on [Zuma’s] side,” an NEC source said.

The move in Parliament is seen as part of a broader campaign to keep Zuma out of the Pietermaritzburg High Court, where he is due to appear in August on charges ranging from fraud to money laundering and racketeering.

Sources said this issue is foremost in the minds of senior Zuma supporters who sit on the national executive committee (NEC), the ANC’s highest decision-making body between its five-yearly elective and its national general council conferences.

Mbete’s imminent appointment is seen as a positive move because ‘she has always been very vocal when it comes to our job and ministers that want to interfere”, said one portfolio committee chairperson.

Although a reshuffle of committee chairpeople is unlikely, certain key committees, such as the justice and constitutional development, are expected to be targeted to help Zuma supporters amend the law governing the Scorpions.

‘The idea is to call the NPA [National Prosecuting Authority] to order and humiliate them,” an NEC source said.

The political committee serves as liaison between Parliament and the executive, but it has not been functioning properly, several MPs claim.

The committee is ‘secretive” and one committee member admits it does not keep MPs in the loop about its activities.

It also makes recommendations to Luthuli House about redeployment of committee chairpeople and the parliamentary whippery.

The main complaint from MPs is that the committee has been ‘dominated” by ministers and, therefore, MPs cannot properly oversee the executive.

Several committee chairpeople spoke in favour of the changes in the political committee.

‘I’m very excited; the way things are is very frustrating. It is not a nice thing, before you say something you must first check if these people are not going to fight you. If the political committee is not dominated by ministers any more, it will help the chairs to do their work properly.”

The change of guard at Luthuli House brings relief to committee chairpeople as ‘before they wouldn’t say things because they were scared of being reshuffled or redeployed”.

The party adapted its stance on Zuma’s trial after he was recharged at the end of last year, saying that the timing of the charges raised suspicion. A special commission has been set up to look at ways in which the party can support Zuma in the run-up to and during the trial. It is also tasked with starting a new investigation into the arms deal.

This commission, which consists mainly of outspoken Zuma supporters, is supposed to ‘dig up new evidence that implicate ministers” in an attempt to disgrace and shame President Thabo Mbeki and his lieutenants who are in Cabinet, but who have not been returned to the NEC.

‘[Zuma supporters] looked at what the NPA has on Zuma and realised he will not win the case. They know if this man walks into court, he won’t walk out [a free man]. They are not questioning the substance of the claims, rather the circumstances around it,” an NEC insider said.

‘They want to disband the Scorpions by hook or by crook, but they realise they can’t do it in one go, so they will have to do it gradually and take it step by step.”

At the first meeting of the new NEC, the issue of how to keep Zuma out of court was discussed, but no position was taken because, although the majority of the committee support Zuma, there are still key Mbeki-ites who do not support interference in the Zuma court appearance.

DA MP Sheila Camerer said the NPA Act would have to be amended if the Scorpions were to close down.

Ordinarily Cabinet would instruct government’s law advisers to produce draft legislation that would then be put before Parliament’s different bodies.

The ANC decided in December that the Scorpions must be incorporated into the police service ‘as a matter of urgency”.