Spy reports are Zuma’s wrecking balls
We know neutralising political opponents using dodgy intelligence reports is not far-fetched in South African politics. In fact, it is par for the course.
Much changes, but more stays the same, and the degree of sameness simply encourages the steady degradation of almost every aspect of SA’s body politic.
Allegations by former unionist James Motlatsi that Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa is the next target of such an attempt are unsurprising. Motlatsi told the media this week that President Jacob Zuma would use an “intelligence dossier” to claim that Ramaphosa was a spy for “western capitalists” and to justify removing him from the Cabinet.
Not that Zuma really needs a reason to axe members of his executive anymore — this week he released a statement without even a pretence of caring to explain why. He also simply briefed the ANC’s national officials and, despite a warning from them over the instability that the move would prompt and the devastating effect it would have on the already frayed tripartite alliance, he went ahead anyway.
It is clear in the ANC ’s 2017 leadership battle that intelligence-run interference — spreading falsehoods intended to discredit candidates — is rife, just as it was ahead of the 2012 national conference, as well as Polokwane in 2007.
Business Day’s Stephan Hofstatter reported in September that Police Minister Fikile Mbalula had ordered a large shake-up at the crime intelligence division of the South African Police Service.
This served to tighten his grip on the division and bolstered its capacity to spy on citizens.
The report read that the directive “imposed tighter ministerial controls on the division’s R700m slush fund that regularly faces allegations of being looted or used to fight factional political battles”.
It cannot be coincidence that the move came just three months before the ANC’s national conference.
In fact, this week Ramaphosa must have experienced a sense of deja vu, if he had placed stock in the allegations of his friend and campaigner Motlatsi.
It was ahead of the ANC’s 2002 national conference that the late safety and security minister Steve Tshwete alleged that there was an investigation by intelligence agencies into Tokyo Sexwale, Mathews Phosa and Ramaphosa, who were allegedly plotting against former president Thabo Mbeki. Tshwete later apologised to the three.
In 2012, ahead of the national conference, the dodgy “Ground Coverage” report emerged, alleging that senior ANC leaders were plotting to oust Zuma. Sexwale, ANC Gauteng chairman Paul Mashatile, Mbalula, then KwaZulu-Natal premier Zweli Mkhize, and then police commissioner Bheki Cele were pointed to.
Cele recently said that there was a “plot” to remove Ramaphosa and destabilise the country ahead of the party’s national conference.
Dodgy intelligence reports have proven so effective, they have been used to discredit institutions, ministers and even state bureaucrats as well. Former finance minister Pravin Gordhan was fired on the basis of a fake intelligence report. A report discrediting Treasury officials also turned up and was circulated some months before the removal of Nhlanhla Nene as finance minister in December 2015.
Mkhize’s backers claim that the attempt to paint him as a Trojan horse candidate for Zuma is part of a dirty tricks campaign. The talk about Mkhize, which was echoed by EFF leader Julius Malema, is that he remains loyal to Zuma. The line goes that Mkhize may even replace Dlamini-Zuma as Zuma’s preferred successor come December.
But this seems highly unlikely. As far back as 2011, reports in the Mail & Guardian indicated that the relationship between the two had begun to sour as ANC funders in KwaZulu-Natal, which Mkhize then chaired, expressed discomfort at Zuma’s proximity to the Gupta family.
Mkhize’s supporters and allies now say he is being linked to Zuma to halt his steady growth as a potential “unity” candidate, particularly after Ramaphosa’s backers had dropped him as a possible candidate for deputy president. Only Dlamini-Zuma has escaped the wrath of the dirty tricks operatives
But her campaign is already saddled with the political baggage of the Zuma faction — nepotism, corruption and state capture.
The so-called intelligence reports that have become a key precursor to ANC national elective gatherings are easy to see for what they are, and are therefore easy to dismiss.
It is nonetheless a dangerous time. There is much to lose for the ANC, and more so for Zuma.
RAMAPHOSA MUST HAVE EXPERIENCED A SENSE OF DEJA VU HAD HE PLACED STOCK IN THE CLAIMS OF FRIEND AND CAMPAIGNER MOTLATSI