Vote as ANC orders, MPs told
The fallout over how ANC MPs should vote in the opposition motion of no confidence against President Jacob Zuma spilt over to the party’s national policy conference yesterday, with Police Minister Fikile Mbalula warning MPs to follow the party’s voting directions.
The Sunday Times understands Speaker Baleka Mbete’s announcement of the August 3 date for the debate came as a shock to the ANC caucus, as party MPs claimed her office had not informed the chief whip’s office prior to the release of the statement.
Several ANC MPs such as Mondli Gungubele and Makhosi Khoza have voiced a desire to vote with their consciences or by secret ballot.
Presenting the ANC’s discussion document on organisational renewal behind closed doors at Nasrec yesterday, Mbalula told the parliamentary caucus they would not be allowed to vote by secret ballot or according to their consciences.
Sources who attended Mbalula’s briefing said the former ANC Youth League president had said the parliamentary caucus was not a constitutional structure with the authority to take independent political decisions.
Another source said: “He told them they must forget about the idea of voting with a conscience; that they have no powers to make such decisions.”
Mbalula’s remarks are likely to be interpreted as an assault on a caucus that has recently started getting tough on cabinet ministers during oversight committee meetings.
Since national executive committee member Jackson Mthembu took over as chief whip last year, ANC MPs have regained the courage to take on problematic government departments and parastatals.
Mbalula’s broadside to the parliamentary caucus is in the same vein as comments made by Zuma on Friday in his political overview. Zuma said there were attempts to pit ANC MPs against his ministers.
“We have to ask ourselves whether we have honed the skills to manage this and the growing attempts to draw a wedge between the executive and the parliamentary caucus of the governing party,” said Zuma.
Mbete has given political parties represented in parliament until July 14 to provide arguments for or against a secret ballot.
Some ANC MPs questioned her timing of the announcement, asking why she saw fit to choose the day of Zuma’s address.
“I mean, what was the rush? The Constitutional Court did not put a date to this thing. Why not allow the president to deal with the policy conference and deal with the matter of the motion later?” said an MP.
Mbalula was not available for comment at the time of going to press.
There are hopes for a “shoot-out” at the ANC national policy conference on the Guptas but this will not happen, ANC secretarygeneral Gwede Mantashe told the media on Friday night.
If the speech by President Jacob Zuma and the “diagnostic organisational report” presented by Mantashe on the first day of the conference are anything to go by, it is more likely that the ANC will just continue shooting itself in the foot.
While Zuma attempted to downplay the concept of state capture, Mantashe was so nuanced on the issue, he seemed to be almost empathetic towards those who surrendered the ANC’s decision-making power to the Guptas.
Mantashe is not renowned for his tactfulness, but in his report he ventured towards the G-spot rather delicately.
“A principle we must remind ourselves of is that those who hold positions either in government or in the structures of the movement have no private life,” he said.
All our actions attract the attention of society. When a leader of the ANC falls sick or receives an achievement award, that constitutes a subject of talkshows and public discussion. Mistakes committed at government level affect the ANC directly, and the organisation cannot claim not to be involved.”
Mantashe said there was a temptation in the ANC to regard public discussions about the Guptas’ influence as an invasion of privacy. The ANC had become “dismissive and defensive” about the issue and a narrative was developed “to link any discomfort with the influence of the Gupta family to the regime-change agenda”.
“Linking regime change to state capture reflects the decline in our analytical capacity. The series of e-mails that are released in tranches each day cause more harm to the movement. Our reaction cannot be careless, but it needs to be comprehensive,” Mantashe said.
“Where we must own up, individual comrades should do so by providing reputable explanations, as a few have done. Blatant denial lacks credibility in the eyes of society.”
But asked if Zuma would be requested to explain his relationship with the Guptas, Mantashe balked, saying the conference was not a court and it was up to the Hawks to pursue allegations of criminality.
However, in his report, it was other creatures that were referenced. He said society expected the ANC to take a stand on corruption “by taking serious action or being seen to do so”.
“It expects our movement to deal ‘with both tigers and flies’ when it comes to corruption. They expect to see arrests, prosecution and conviction of both the small fries and important individuals.
“With more than half of the national executive committee members having been to China on a political-exchange programme, the ANC leadership should be able to understand the concept of ‘dealing with both tigers and flies’.”
With most of the South African population not having been to China, it is not clear to us whether the Zumas and Guptas are the tigers or flies, or the ringmasters of the tiger and fly circus.
Another intriguing concept in Mantashe’s report was the “colour revolution” which he used to contextualise the marches against Zuma and the demands for the president to step down.
“Colour revolution, as a mode, escalates protest movement from service delivery to challenging state power or provoking the security forces of a target state.”
The Marikana massacre and #FeesMustFall movement were examples of the colour revolution in South Africa, Mantashe said.
“Some sections of the ANC that are impatient and wanting to see the back of the president immediately, feel justified in joining the Zuma Must Fall marches, or vote with the opposition in the motion of no confidence in the president of the country.
“Other sections of the ANC that project themselves as the sole protectors of the president feel justified when making reckless statements in defence of the president . . . Ultimately, we fall prey to the external forces and weaken the movement ourselves. This situation confuses society, and the movement slides into decline,” said Mantashe.
So according to him, it is the ANC’s fragmented response rather than its paralysis towards Zuma’s ruinous leadership that is responsible for the regression.
Going by Dr Mantashe’s diagnosis, Patient X could croak on the conference floor.
Linking regime change to state capture reflects the decline in analytical capacity. The e-mails cause more harm to the movement Gwede Mantashe ANC secretary-general