Lily-white legal team undermines Ramaphosa
LAST week, Deputy President and African National Congress (ANC) deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa stood toe to toe with lawyer and Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Dali Mpofu at the Marikana commission of inquiry.
At the end of the commission proceedings the day before, advocate Dumisa Ntsebeza, a former antiapartheid activist and former head of the investigation unit at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, struck a very painful blow. It was as painful to watch as it must have been to Ramaphosa. Ntsebeza reminded Ramaphosa that he was a former chairman of the black economic empowerment commission and then pointed out the painful irony of a Ramaphosa who had gone to the Marikana commission with a battery of white lawyers.
For one who may be a contender for the positions of ANC president in 2017 and head of state in 2019, taking an all-white team of lawyers to the Marikana commission, of all places, was an unfortunate oversight. I was therefore not surprised when Mpofu returned to the theme of the lily-white legal team during one of their testy displays of verbal prowess.
What we must remember is that, for Mpofu, the strategy behind his crossexamination of the deputy president was probably not limited to legal niceties. This was a battle between an ANC politician and an EFF politician, and given the circumstances under which the EFF came into being and the fact that, for the families of the victims and the community of Marikana, the ANC government is on the side of mining capital, the conflict between the two men was intense because it is so intimate.
From my vantage point, Mpofu sought to demonstrate three things. First, Ramaphosa is a lackey and errand boy of white capital in general and mining capital in particular. Second, Ramaphosa was not an ordinary member of the Lonmin board. Lonmin was in effect paying for his political services. Third, Ramaphosa is criminally liable for the killing of the 34 mine workers by the police.
If the evidence that has been led so far is anything to go by, and my interpretation is correct, it is highly unlikely that the commission will find that Ramaphosa is criminally liable and must, therefore, face criminal charges.
However, the court of public opinion is another matter altogether. It is possible that the damage that was done to Ramaphosa is politically significant but will not lead to the kind of legal outcome desired by many in Marikana. If Mpofu did inflict some political damage, the question is whether it extends significantly to the leadership structures and rank and file of the ruling party. If it does, he must say “goodbye” to any chance of becoming the next president of the ruling party and the country.
Also, the moment it becomes apparent that he is a presidential candidate for 2017 and 2019, his opponents and political enemies in the alliance will declare true then what they publicly declare to be false about Ramaphosa today.
Let me put this in another way. I suspect that Ramaphosa received many a sympathetic call from his ANC and alliance comrades after the mauling by Mpofu but shouted, “Good one, Dali,” before the calls were properly terminated. If the insinuation that Ramaphosa is an errand boy of white capital has a basis in reality, the question that arises is whether it is fair to limit the insinuation to the deputy president. Should it not extend to other leaders of the ANC as well? Is it not possible that Ramaphosa is but an example of a broader problem? If the suggestion that white capital rents political influence from some in the ANC or the ANC itself is true, who is really in charge of our post-apartheid projects?
If I am not being naive in the belief that the ANC and its leaders will never betray our people when so much was sacrificed during the liberation struggle, there is still hope for the orphans and widows of Marikana.
If I am being naive, the renting out of political influence for the economic benefit of white foreign and domestic capital is a sin worse than the enjoyment of the benefits of being an apartheid spy.