Prison tends to change a man – just ask Sexwale

TOKYO Sexwale has become quite the introspective tycoon. This week, the ANC veteran took a trip to Robben Island, where he’d been imprisoned for 13 years.

There, in his old cell, he was struck by all sorts of thoughts, about the principles and sacrifices of the Struggle, and the sort of society he and his comrades had wanted to build after the fall of apartheid.

He’d had the same thoughts, he said, when, he’d visited the “death cell” at what used to be Pretoria Central.

“Was it worth it?” he asked. “Yes, it was worth it. But look at what’s happening now. It’s a tragic comedy of errors.”

Sexwale was addressing the media on Thursday, and he announced that he had distanced himself from the Guptalinked Trillian Capital Partners, where he is a non-executive chairman, and he wanted a judicial inquiry into the firm as part of a bigger inquiry into state capture.

He recommended that the chief justice – and not Jacob Zuma – appoint the judge to head this investigation. It was time, Sexwale said, the president did some explaining.

He pointed out that he had appointed advocate Geoff Budlender SC last year to investigate allegations that Trillian management had prior knowledge of then-finance minister Nhlanhla Nene’s axing in 2015, and added: “I’m not a Johnny-come-lately as far as #ZumaMustGo is concerned. I’m just glad that there are more of us now.”

Here at the Mahogany Ridge, we were struck by the resolve and sincerity in Sexwale’s tone. But then, being back in a prison cell, even briefly and just for sentimental reasons, will do that to a person.

But Sexwale is correct in suggesting more ANC members are publicly calling for Zuma to stand down. You may think of it as an outbreak of spine, an epidemic of backbone.

More cynically, nothing brings out the backstabbing bastards so much as a man on his knees. And uBaba is that man.

According to the Mail & Guardian, 54 of the 106 members of the ANC’s national executive committee, which is meeting at Pretoria this weekend, are now opposed to Zuma.

At the committee’s last sitting in November, only a handful of members, led by former tourism minister Derek Hanekom, challenged Zuma’s presidency – and were quickly shot down. Accused No 1 left that meeting relatively unscathed.

Six months later, and it’s a different scenario. The axing of the finance minister, Pravin Gordhan, and his deputy, Mcebisi Jonas, may have been in accordance with Zupta Inc’s state capture plans, but it’s all gone a bit pear-shaped.

Lawmakers with the ANC are now greatly enraged at the Guptas’ alleged influence in procurement deals with state-owned companies, like arms manufacturer Denel.

ANC MP Zukile Luyenge suggested to the parliamentary oversight committee on public enterprises that Zuma’s friends be summoned to Parliament to face a grilling.

The committee was quite the centre of attention, especially on Tuesday, when Gordhan made his debut as a member with a clinical evisceration of the Eskom board and Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown over Brian “Maternity Leave” Molefe’s reappointment as chief executive of the power utility. Gordhan may be just a backbencher now, but he is a backbencher with an axe to grind.

Zuma still has many supporters and they will, according to ANC Youth League secretary-general Njabulo Nzuza, oppose any attempt to remove him from office. Such a recall would be unconstitutional, Nzuza insisted.

“Those people really can’t raise a motion of no confidence in an NEC,” he said. “Only congress, which elected him (Zuma), can deal with such a thing. Even our constitution makes no provision for such. People are being sold a fallacy of something here.”

The people were sold out long ago, but never mind that. When it comes to state capture, there remains a wilful blindness in some Zuma supporters.

Communications Minister Ayanda Dlodlo, one of the new appointments in that disastrous reshuffle, insists it is grossly unfair to suggest that she and her colleagues in the cabinet were part of some tainted group.

“We are all seen as part of this state capture gravy train, a corrupt team appointed by President Zuma, without giving us the benefit of the doubt.”

That happens when most of the ANC give the rest of the party a bad name.