Charge Zuma: MP

ANC’s Gungubele joins team Khoza

ANOTHER ANC MP has broken ranks with the party, saying he is going to vote against President Jacob Zuma on the motion of no-confidence when it is tabled in Parliament next month.

Former Ekurhuleni mayor Mondli Gungubele told Independent Media the party should have charged Zuma for his links to state capture after the revealing leaked e-mails relating to the Gupta family.

Increasing pressure on the Guptas this week has implications for Zuma and the ANC.

Two of the ANC’s top six called for action against the Guptas and those in the party who have done their bidding. Secretary-general Gwede Mantashe, speaking before a three-day NEC lekgotla, called for the arrest of ANC members who are criminally implicated in the leaked Gupta e-mails.

Treasurer-general Zweli Mkhize said the e-mails were embarrassing and those involved needed to be held to account.

Yesterday, the anti-corruption organisation Outa laid fraud, corruption and high treason charges against Public Enterprises director-general Mogokare Richard Seleke after media reports of his alleged involvement as a conduit between state-owned enterprises and the Gupta family, tipping them off about potential deals.

Eskom has suspended its chief financial officer Anoj Singh, a close associate of the Gupta family, who allegedly directed deals their way.

The Bank of Baroda this week cut ties with the Guptas, months after major South African banks had done the same.

With the mood in the ANC growing increasingly restless, the party in Gauteng has not said what will happen to Gungubele, but yesterday he remained steadfast that he would not support Zuma in the no- confidence motion.

Gungubele also came out in support of KZN ANC MP, Makhosi Khoza, for calling on Zuma to step down and for a secret ballot in the motion of no-confidence debate. She has said she could not vote for Zuma.

Khoza has been hauled before the disciplinary committee by the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal over her remarks.

She has cried foul and accused the ANC of singling her out when, according to her, many people in the ANC have spoken out against Zuma.

Gungubele said Zuma has brought the ANC into disrepute and should have been charged by the party.

Former finance minister Pravin Gordhan and former tourism minister Derek Hanekom were among some MPs also expected to vote against Zuma.

“My attitude is very simple in this matter. There is a lot of information out there which requires the president to account, but our organisation does not make him account,” he said.

“Instead our organisation opts to shoot a fly called Makhosi Khoza.

Makhosi is crying out for help for things happening in the organisation,” he said.

Gungubele said there was a clause in the ANC constitution that if anyone brought the organisation into disrepute they should be charged.

Zuma has admitted that the Guptas were his friends and the ANC was divided because of the Guptas, Gungubele said.

The president needed to be charged and not Khoza, said Gungubele.

“How then do you charge Makhosi. The ANC president cannot secure my confidence,” he said.

Asked whether he was afraid that he could be charged for his remarks, Gungubele said he believed in the values and traditions of the ANC.

He said when a person joined the ANC, they were driven by conviction, and he still believed in that conviction.