Keep JZ faction at bay
It was a grotesque scene at the Cosatu Congress in Midrand last Monday. The entire tripartite leadership was there. Cyril Ramaphosa, as ANC president, chose his moment well and went for the jugular over reports of a plot to oust him: “We should not spend time on counter-revolutionary machinations of weakening the ANC in dark corners, that must end”.
Party SG Ace Magashule, named by the Sunday Times as the man working with disgraced former president Jacob Zuma to oust Ramaphosa, was in front with the high command, in the spotlight, as hundreds of delegates gazed at him and applauded Ramaphosa’s every word. The generally amiable president was not yet done. “If there’s going to be any plot it must be a plot to defeat poverty, that is the type of plot we want. We can’t go into elections with a divided leadership. Those seeking to divide our people should be exposed.” The SG seemed to have problems sitting straight in his chair.
There is more to the saga than meets the eye. The fact that the pre-Nasrec NDZ high command, including the Youth League and Women’s League, met on Zuma’s stomping ground, KwaZulu-Natal, shows it.
For those who naively believe it was all just ANC high drama and nothing to do with them, here’s a rude re-awakening: anything that goes wrong in “The Movement” affects every aspect of South African life. It was the ANC that in 2007 chose an uneducated and morally compromised president, which led to the biggest state heist the country has seen since 1910.
Today the country is on the brink of collapse as a result of Zuma’s greed. We are today paying the price for nine years of madness because of that crazy decision in Polokwane.
Now, despite his ignominious recall, Zuma refuses to go. He faces corruption charges relating to the Schabir Shaik trial and features prominently in the Zondo Commission of Inquiry into State Capture. He is a shameless and pathetic man going around the country to mislead the youth with his rotten politics. Someone in the ANC must stop him before it is too late.in serious trouble. The unity talked about at Nasrec is a mirage. With Zuma attending every NEC meeting and stoking the fires of factionalism, by the time judge Zondo publishes his report on state capture, Oliver Tambo’s organisation may be one of the worst ruling parties in Africa on the sheer scale of corruption. The Ramaphosa group is determined to cleanse the party of criminal and threatening kleptocrats while the ZumaMagashule axis is desperately manoeuvring to reclaim power and stay out of prison.
The billions looted by the Guptas and others belongs to all South Africans. It is therefore in their interest that the beneficiaries of state capture be defeated, tried, prosecuted and jailed. Should this fail and the cabal reclaim the ANC by ousting Ramaphosa, the consequences for all South Africans will be ghastly. – Sello Lediga, via e-mail