Deputy President David Mabuza appears to be on his way out of the government. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)
Just as the new MPs were about to be sworn in on 22 May 2019, news broke that David Mabuza would not be among those taking the oath. The former premier of Mpumalanga and deputy president of the ANC was placed second on the list the party had submitted to the Independent Electoral Commission.
With the ANC winning the 2019 election, Mabuza’s second place on the ANC list put him in line for appointment as deputy president of the republic. For that appointment to happen, Mabuza first had to be sworn in as an MP but the ANC’s integrity committee put a halt to that ceremony. Mabuza was among the 22 people the committee was assessing to see whether they were fit to represent the ANC in parliament.
A few days later, Mabuza was sworn in. This gave the impression that the integrity committee had approved his appointment for the second-highest position in the cabinet. More than a year later, however, it came out that the integrity committee, a body formed to restore the party’s moral integrity, never actually cleared Mabuza.
Yet, nothing was ever done about it and the ANC continued to insist that it was on the path to renewing its ethical character. A look into Mabuza’s past not only illuminates the contradiction but also explains why today the party is still beset with morally questionable leaders who don’t find anything untoward about contesting for leadership of the party in December 2022.
A former teacher, Mabuza had an impressive rise and established a firm grip both on the party and state in Mpumalanga. Of the party’s chairpersons in Mpumalanga, he was the only one elected for three terms and completed two terms as premier of the province.
In an insightful account of provincial politics, contained in a book titled Eerie Assignment, Sizwe Sama Yende, suggests Mabuza appears to believe his feat was foretold by the manner of his entry into the provincial cabinet. Mathews Phosa, the inaugural premier, not only appointed him to the administration but also made arrangements to have a car fetch him from school. That seemed to signal his distinguished status.
Mabuza had made a name for himself in local politics in the former Eastern Transvaal, particularly within the education sector, going on to become one of the founders of the first nationwide teachers’ organisation, the South African Democratic Teachers Union.
For a newly formed province, made up of areas that formerly fell under different territories, it was important for Phosa to have a provincial administration in which the various regions had representatives. Regional diversity aided the efforts to cement the unity of the new province.
Though not entirely unknown, Mabuza was never rated highly on liberation credentials. He had never been in exile or to prison. Those factors counted in determining one’s place in the hierarchy of importance within the ANC. That explains why former president Thabo Mbeki never considered Mabuza as a replacement after he overlooked Phosa for re-appointment in 1999. Mbeki chose Ndaweni Mahlangu, a former bantustan leader, instead. It also didn’t help Mabuza’s standing when he was fired for inflating the matric pass rate and, as a result, was assigned to parliament.
Mabuza’s local activism, however, would eventually work in his favour. For a newly merged province, loyalty to local leaders still played a significant role. For one who came from regions that commanded dominant support, it was relatively easy to win. Mabuza contested the chairperson position in 2008 and won.
His victory, albeit slim, was spectacular considering the calibre of his rival, Lassy Chiwayo. Formerly based in Witbank, Chiwayo was a former Robben Island prisoner, jailed at the tender age of 17. This distinction earned him a great deal of admiration among anti-apartheid veterans but his proximity to the urban centres of Tshwane and Johannesburg seems to have denied him prominence in the broader areas of Mpumalanga.
Mabuza benefited immensely from his central location in what would become Mpumalanga. And, he was aware that, based strictly on merit and seniority, Chiwayo was more deserving of the post than him. Thus Mabuza viewed Chiwayo, and many of his stature, as a threat to his tenure. This paranoia, in turn, made Mabuza prioritise consolidating his grip on power, which he pursued in two ways: purging and disbursement of patronage. Potential rivals were purged and, where that failed, delegitimised.
Mabuza’s quasi-militia, the ANC Youth League, maliciously accused Chiwayo, Fish Mahlalela and Phosa of instigating service delivery protests. A lawyer by training, and an exile returnee, Mahlalela was once a chairperson of the province and remained popular there.
Phosa constituted an alternative centre of power and had the potential to turn opinion against Mabuza. The two did eventually fall out, as Phosa became critical of Mabuza’s administration. In its hatchet job, the youth league, as it turned out, failed to produce evidence to back up its accusations that the trio were saboteurs. As a result, they were reprimanded by the party’s national office and ordered to stop the smear campaign.
Spreading malicious rumours was a well-established tactic for dealing with critics. Mabuza even enrolled journalists as hatchetmen. One of them, Mbekezeli Mbuli, even invented a professor, “Robert MacMillan”, and a fictitious quote to add credibility to the story that sought to discredit Clifford Mkasi, another Mabuza rival.
Mbuli was on the payroll of Mabuza’s government. Those who remained loyal to their craft were offered bribes to stop writing critical stories. Yende, a City Press journalist, was one of those offered a bribe. He took it but went to the police to lay a charge of bribery. This was after he had been threatened at gunpoint, at home in the evening, in an attempt to stop him exposing government malfeasance. But, local prosecutors were reluctant to proceed with the case. A prosecutor had to be brought in from outside the province.
Mabuza was determined to wipe out any potential challengers to his position. If not through slander, potential rivals were forced through terror to bow out. Mkasi and Charles Makola were both terrorised out of challenging Mabuza. They got death threats and the intelligence service also warned of assassination plots against them. Fearful, they got bodyguards, stayed away from any ANC activities and simply gave up on challenging Mabuza.
But, Mabuza was not content with them simply withdrawing from the race. He subjected Makola to even more punishment. Makola, a municipal manager at the Nkangala District Municipality, was fired. Firing potential challengers, or critics, was commonplace in Mpumalanga. They even had a phrase for it: bafakwe emagwabeni (they’ve been sent to a guava orchard), meaning you’ll survive on the guava fruit — unemployment is referred to as “guavaland”. Fortunately, Makola was successfully able to sue the state for unfair dismissal, somewhat evading the ravaging effects of “guavaland”.
Contrary to critics, sycophants were rewarded with the spoils of power. They not only got salaried positions but were allowed to indulge themselves in state contracts. Mabuza provided the lead when it came to self-aggrandisement. He was directly involved in companies that did business with the state and got pseudo business people, like Patrick Chirwa and Harrington Dhlamini, to act as his proxies.
Preference for acolytes and proxies effectively meant excluding other bidders irregularly, awarding unqualified service providers, and money laundering. The plunder was inevitably exposed, creating public outrage and constant calls for legal prosecution. All this made the jailing of culprits, including Mabuza, a possibility. The result was more terror and assassinations to avert prison time.
And, so Mpumalanga, as Yende puts it, gained notoriety as South Africa’s “assassination capital”, with Mabuza at the helm. This explains the difficulty of the ANC’s integrity committee in clearing Mabuza to be sworn in as an MP in 2009. Despite this, he was sworn in and remains deputy president of both the country and party — and wants to be re-elected.
And, throughout all this time, Mabuza never threatened, or sued, those who have chronicled his possible complicity, especially Yende for his courageous writing of the book, Eerie Assignment.
If Yende’s account is credible, as it appears to be, then why has Mabuza not attracted the attention of the National Prosecuting Authority, especially now that the government claims to be on a quest to cleanse itself of miscreants?
One presumes that this is exactly what Mabuza had in mind, at the 2017 Nasrec conference, when he switched sides from supporting Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma to Cyril Ramaphosa, ensuring the latter of victory. Mabuza appears to have figured out that a Dlamini-Zuma government would lead to an electoral loss in 2019, which would have introduced the possibility of a new president coming from the opposition.
Mabuza dreaded the thought, if his prosecution was ever contemplated, of pleading for mercy with a hostile president. To guarantee that he never had to answer any questions, Mabuza decided to deliver Ramaphosa’s victory, effectively making the ANC president indebted to him. Mabuza appears to have tied Ramaphosa’s hands with his own victory at Nasrec.
If indeed Mabuza has been purposefully spared from prosecution, then it underlines the deceptiveness of the ANC’s renewal. Even more worrisome, however, is the prospect that the ANC may never untangle itself from rogues, who buy themselves immunity by offering votes to guarantee victory. Now that Ramaphosa is looking at re-election, he appears open to even more degenerates. And so, the cycle will continue.
Mcebisi Ndletyana is a professor of political science at the University of Johannesburg and co-author of a forthcoming book on the centenary history of Fort Hare University.
The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Mail & Guardian.
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