ALL EYES ON ZUMA
President’s backers line up to defend no confidence bid
PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma’s backers stand ready to defend him from any attempts to remove him when the ANC’s national executive committee (NEC) meets from today.
Zuma is under mounting pressure to step down following a series of reports into the controversial state capture and calls from within the tripartite alliance and outside.
Yesterday the ANC stalwarts, who have warned that the party was dying, wrote a letter to the NEC in their last-ditch attempt to convince the party’s structure to recall Zuma.
This took place as yet another report was released yesterday, this time by academics, warning against corruption in Zuma’s administration that amounted to a silent coup.
In the letter, former president Kgalema Motlanthe slammed the country’s political leadership as morally compromised.
ANC veteran Murphy Morobe told The Star their letter would give a full account of the six months they have been involved in the process to save the ANC.
“We have a sense that some of the issues we have been dealing with have not reached the NEC,” said Morobe.
“Given the seriousness of this capture of the state by our own leaders within the ANC, we, as the veterans and stalwarts of the movement, call on the NEC, as it meets this weekend, to show leadership to our members, supporters and the nation, and exercise its executive power in terms of the ANC constitution to remove from government all those who are party to this project of state capture. In particular, the ANC should seriously consider recalling the president as head of state and of government,” the letter says.
ANC spokesperson Zizi Kodwa said they had not yet received the letter.
The report by the team of academics, titled “Betrayal of the Promise: How South Africa is Being Stolen”, warned against state capture, saying it was a silent coup.
The project was an academic research partnership between leading researchers including Professor Mzukisi Qobo, Professor Mark Swilling from Stellenbosch University’s Centre for Complex Systems in Transition and Professor Ivor Chipkin from Wits University’s Public Affairs Research Institute.
The report contains allegations of how Zuma and senior government officials “have colluded with a shadow network of corrupt brokers”.
The report also decries the manner in which the power elite pursued its own interests at the expense of South African society, “in particular the poorest people who will suffer first and most from the consequences of what is in reality a de facto silent coup”.
The report comes hot on the heels of the Unburdening Report released by the SA Council of Churches this week, which warned that the country was on the brink of becoming a mafia state as a result of state capture.
But Zuma’s backers believe that any attempts to remove him from power would be unconstitutional and would fail to gain traction among NEC members.
The Star understands there were plans for another motion of no confidence to be tabled against Zuma at the meeting.
This is against the backdrop of the controversy around Brian Molefe’s redeployment as Eskom chief executive.
Zuma’s deputy, Cyril Ramaphosa, has made criticism of state capture central to his campaign to replace the president in December.
The NEC meeting, happening on the eve of the policy conference, will also give an indication on whether Zuma still has a stranglehold on power or has been significantly weakened.
Cosatu’s decision to bar him from speaking at its events has added to his woes.
Umkhonto weSizwe Military Veterans Association chairperson Kebby Maphatsoe said any attempts to remove Zuma would be defeated.“Let the motion against the president come. We are ready for it! If they raise it, they must put facts on the table, but I don’t think it will fly.”
A staunch Zuma supporter, Maphatsoe said it would be unconstitutional for the NEC to recall Zuma as president, adding: “This issue is totally different from (former president) Thabo Mbeki as he was no longer ANC president when he was recalled.”
He said calls for Zuma to step down had been discussed at length by the NEC and the party’s branches, and the matter was considered closed.
“If you remove Zuma you are violating the constitution of the ANC. The branches of the ANC still have confidence in Zuma. He must finish his term in December,” said Maphatsoe.
ANC Youth League spokesperson Mlondi Mkhize berated members who were “falling into the trap” of calling on Zuma to step down, saying they were behaving like opposition parties in Parliament.
He said attempts to remove the president would not succeed and that the party’s youth league supported Zuma to finish his terms as ANC leader in December and as president in 2019.
Motlanthe also lashed out at morally unjust leadership, saying 23 years after democracy, the post-colonial experience had been “tainted and morally compromised leadership, corruption, lack of ethics and therefore poor governance”.
“All these have not only compromised the future of millions of poor, working-class, peasant and young Africans, but have also, by so doing, betrayed the noble vision nurtured over decades if not centuries of struggle for human freedom.”
He made the remarks during the launch of the South African chapter of Oxfam at Constitution Hill in Joburg yesterday.
The ANC Women’s League couldn’t be reached for comment.
PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma has responded to the uproar over Brian Molefe’s reappointment as chief executive of Eskom by setting up an inter-ministerial committee to look into resolving a matter of this nature in future.
Justice Minister Michael Masutha will lead the task team.
This followed the cabinet’s decision to back Parliament’s inquiry into Molefe’s reappointment.
Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown also announced yesterday an investigation into Eskom, stretching to 2007, when load shedding began.
The task team set up by Zuma will include Masutha, Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba, Energy Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi and Brown.
Opposition parties said they would see Molefe in court on Tuesday to explain why he should be kept in the position of chief executive at the power utility.
“Cabinet is concerned about the recent developments at Eskom. It appreciates that the matter regarding the re-employment of Mr Brian Molefe as the chief executive of Eskom is before courts and in Parliament, and shall therefore respect these processes,” said acting government spokesperson Phumla Williams.
The intervention of Zuma came after Brown said she would launch her own investigation into Eskom.
Natasha Mazzone of the DA said the power utility was in crisis because Brown had failed in her oversight responsibilities.
The full-scale inquiry into Brown’s reappointment of Molefe would get to the bottom of the issues, she added.
Thembinkosi Rawula of the EFF said Brown had endorsed Molefe’s decision to resign from Eskom.