Zuma’s detractors could face backlash, says Mbete
ANC NATIONAL chairperson Baleka Mbete has revealed that the party’s top six leaders are working hard to calm the storm as national executive committee (NEC) members are divided over the future of those who want President Jacob Zuma to step down.
Mbete was in KwaMashu, north of Durban, at the weekend to deliver a memorial lecture on the late ANC Struggle stalwart Dumisani Makhaye.
She told The Star it was not only the ANC Youth League that had called for harsher action against Zuma’s adversaries within the NEC. She said other members of the NEC were “hurt and shocked” when their colleagues in the NEC meeting called for the resignation of those who supported a motion that Zuma should step down.
“Comrades raised this, and we were hurt, and it shocked us, but we agreed that everyone should discuss the matter.
“As leaders in the top six we are going to meet on Monday (today) to have a serious discussion,” Mbete said.
She said the issue would also be further discussed during other meetings of the national working committee.
Tourism Minister Derek Hanekom had during the NEC meeting tabled the motion, which was supported by, among others, Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi, Science and Technology Minister Naledi Pandor and ANC chief whip Jackson Mthembu.
The motion, which divided the NEC, was tabled at the last NEC meeting for the year in Irene, Tsh- wane.
After Zuma had survived the motion, leaders of the ANC Youth League in KwaZulu-Natal openly called for those who wanted Zuma to go to either resign or be removed “because they cannot work in the cabinet or with a president they don’t trust”.
ANCYL chairperson in the eThekwini region Thembo Ntuli said last week that tabling and supporting the motion was a sign of collaborating with the enemies of the ANC and the government.
“We request the NEC to look at them,” said Ntuli.
ANCYL KZN secretary Thanduxolo Sabelo had also said the ministers had automatically tendered their resignation by rising against Zuma.
“Zuma must not waste time with people who do not trust him. He must fire them now,” he said.
Mbete said that call, which she differed with, was not coming only from the ANCYL. “The same call was also made in the NEC meeting itself, but I am saying we did not agree with it. We did not agree that we are going to adopt it, and in what way we are not going to implement it.”
The heated NEC meeting followed an engagement between ANC veterans and NEC members, including Zuma, in which veterans raised concerns about the direction the party was taking. Mbete said the motion was not influenced by the veterans.
“We should not blame veterans for people who raised their own ideas,” said Mbete.
She said the veterans’ meeting was “constructive and positive”, and that they were treated with respect as they were party elders who had the right to raise their concerns.
“We agreed it is important that we work with the veterans. These veterans must be part and parcel of implementing the programme of the ANC into 2017,” said Mbete.
The veterans had also distanced themselves from the Save South Africa group, she said.
POLITICAL parties have largely welcomed the court challenge by President Jacob Zuma opposing the remedial action of the State of Capture report by former public protector advocate Thuli Madonsela.
The president reportedly approached the high court in Pretoria at the weekend for it to review and set aside the report’s recommendations.
He argued that a recommendation that a commission of inquiry be established into his conduct violated the rule of law, was inconsistent with the constitution – the supreme law of the land – and that it breached the principle of separation of powers.
In the explosive report, Madonsela recommended that Zuma appoint a commission of inquiry, whose judge must be selected by Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng.
Yesterday, ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe told The Star: “We have been saying for a very long time that those who are implicated in the report have every legal right to take it on review.”
DA leader Mmusi Maimane’s spokesperson, Mabine Seabe, said: “We are not surprised the president is taking the matter on review.
“In fact, he is following the correct legal route. But that said, we believe he is going to court to delay and frustrate the process regarding the report’s recommendations.”
Seabe said they would file an opposing affidavit against Zuma. “Our lawyers are busy finalising the papers. We believe the report is final and that its recommendations should be implemented,” he added.
EFF deputy president Floyd Shivambu said it was “a good thing” that the president was taking the matter on review. “It is a victory for us that he is challenging it.
“It actually means that he now accepts the powers of the public protector. Remember, the Constitutional Court ruled during the Nkandla matter that if anyone is not happy with the recommendations of the public protector, they should take them on review,” said Shivambu.
The president has previously said the public protector’s recommendations were “mere recommendations” and not a verdict.
Shivambu said: “(The court would) expose the president. He won’t win.”
Political analyst Dumisani Hlophe said the interesting thing about democracy was that if parties were not happy with the report’s recommendations, “they can take it on review. And that’s what the president is doing.
“I don’t think it’s got anything to do with him accepting the public protector’s powers. It’s him not happy with the recommendations.”
Political analyst Ralph Mathekga said the president was taking the matter on review because “he knows he has to either comply with the recommendations or take them on review”.
“I think another reason he is taking the matter to court is because, from where he is sitting, Zuma doesn’t believe in the content of that report. He continues to deny the allegations on state capture.
“The report impinges his dignity and says a lot about his credibility,” Mathekga added.
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