Ace Magashule. Photo by Mlungisi Louw/Gallo Images/Volksblad
A new party for those cast aside by the ANC seemed to be the order of the day when its former secretary general, Ace Magashule, announced his new political home in the form of the African Congress for Transformation (ACT) on Wednesday.
Magashule, flanked by some of his recruits including former Hawks head Berning Ntlemeza, criticised the ANC for having been party to the capture of the judiciary and promoting those implicated by the state capture report to high office.
But Magashule himself was fingered for corruption during his time as Free State premier. He is facing graft charges over hundreds of millions of rands wasted in an asbestos project in his home province. Magashule is out on bail.
The former ANC leader was expelled from the party after he refused to publicly apologise for having drafted a letter purporting to come from its national working committee that attempted to suspend ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa.
His next political home was an object of speculation for months, with Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema allegedly having tried to woo him.
But Magashule said he never intended to join any political party outside of the ANC despite claiming that the EFF and many others like it shared the same leftist ideals.
In his inaugural speech as the interim leader of the ACT, Magashule named several ANC leaders who had been sidelined by the party.
He said Ramaphosa was a “new cadre endorsed by the DA and neoliberal handlers”.
He said that ACT was not a group of disgruntled former ANC leaders, and was instead for the homeless, betrayed and fatigued.
“We have suffered collective betrayal as a people and a nation at the hands of the people who claim to be our leaders. We have been sold out with a few pieces of silver. Many towns are collapsing such as in the Vaal where Iscor was sold, leaving scores unemployed. The ANC of Mandela, Tambo and Sisulu has been betrayed and its sacrifices are now in vain. The legacy of our leaders is spit upon with impunity.”
Magashule went on to claim that the ANC under the leadership of Ramaphosa had sold state-owned entities and that the judiciary had been captured and was applying selective justice.
“The Freedom Charter and its principles have been betrayed in exchange for a free market economy at the expense of the poor. The national infrastructure has been destroyed and the standard of living of our people has been lowered to tragic levels. Our roads are killing fields for the poor, causing a huge financial burden,” he said.
During his more than two decades as the ANC chairperson in the Free State, Magashule was alleged to have established patronage networks using diverted state funds to enhance his “strongman” rule.
“As ACT, we will act against crime, unemployment, poverty, retrenchments, water shedding, hunger, famine, against gender abuse, against discrimination and all forms of human abuse. Here is a new ship of freedom, come along and join us all those who are weary and politically abused,” he said.
Despite the Hawks having arrested Magashule on corruption, fraud and money laundering charges, Ntlemeza said that he had never received a complaint about Magashule during his tenure as Hawks head. He said that charges against Magashule and former president Jacob Zuma were an “injustice”.
In March 2017, the high court in Pretoria found Ntlemeza’s appointment to the Hawks to be unlawful and ruled that he be removed from office. But former police minister Nathi Nhleko stood firm in his decision to appoint him and filed an application to appeal the ruling.
Ntlemeza was thought to have been favoured by the then president Zuma. In October 2015, investigative journalism unit amaBhungane reported that Ntlemeza had ignored a report sent to him when he was deputy police commissioner in Limpopo. The report, submitted by Limpopo-based Lieutenant Boitumelo Ramahlaha, claimed that one of his officers was “defrauding the police by making false travel claims”.
“Ramahlaha alleged Ntlemeza protected the officer because the man was dating Ntlemeza’s daughter”, amaBhungane reported.
The “Ramahlaha case”, as it came to be known, accused the Hawks head of defeating the ends of justice.
Magashule said he had met former presidents Zuma, Mbeki and Kgalema Motlanthe to discuss his plan to leave the ANC.
Zuma had advised him against leaving the ANC to form another party, Magashule said.
“President Zuma said ‘don’t allow another man to come into your house’. I said ‘no president, if the house is burning, I’m just getting into the next room. That man who is coming into my house will go running when we fight at the right time.’ Comrade Lindiwe Sisulu said ‘please don’t leave the ANC’, I said ‘but what should I do, I’m expelled now’.”
Magashule said he had kept the ANC’s database of members and branches and would meet several ANC leaders to ask them to join the ACT. They would be named when the ACT holds its conference to elect a president.