Corruption: Ace’s attempt to change step-aside rule fails
Magashule’s group and ANC outsiders have made moves to get the president and others to also stand aside
President Cyril Ramaphosa and his supporters in the ANC appear — for now — to have gained the upper hand over the faction led by secretary general Ace Magashule. A last-ditch attempt by Magashule to delay or derail the party’s standaside rule — by broadening those who should step aside to include members accused of corruption but not facing charges, rather than leaving them to the ANC’S integrity commission to deal with — has failed.
The Magashule faction has also begun laying criminal charges against key Ramaphosa backers — and the president — to try and force them to stand aside as well.
On Thursday they held a protest outside Luthuli House and are to take their campaign to defend Magashule to the streets as the stand-aside deadline at the end of April nears.
Magashule is out on bail on corruption charges stemming from the R250-million asbestos eradication tender in the Free State, allegedly looted by a group of ANC leaders and business people in the province.
The secretary general and other party members facing corruption charges were given 30 days to stand aside by the national executive committee (NEC) at a meeting on 28 March or face suspension from the ANC.
The move by Magashule appears to have been aimed at trying to tie up Ramaphosa — who was to appear before the Zondo commission into state capture next week — and other leaders of his faction over allegations of corruption in the funding of the 2017 campaign to elect him ANC president. Ramaphosa, who will now appear at the commission on April 28, has been accused of corruption by several witnesses.
Former Eskom chief executive, Brain Molefe, earlier this year, told the commission that Ramaphosa had provided political protection for Glencore, a company in which he was a shareholder and which allegedly tried to extort R8-billion from the power utility. While deputy president, Ramaphosa chaired the Eskom war room, giving him direct influence over the state-owned entity, which Molefe claimed he abused on Glencore’s behalf.
And Black First Land First last August laid corruption charges against Ramaphosa over the alleged misuse of the R500-billion Covid-19 relief fund.
But the ANC’S national working committee (NWC) this week ignored Magashule’s step-aside intervention. It remained on track with its plan to implement a 30-day deadline against corruption charged members, of which Magashule is the most senior, in line with its resolutions.
The NWC re-emphasised the NEC decisions, a clear response to Magashule’s going off-script in his letters to ANC provincial and regional secretaries last week.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, the NWC said it “recalled” the decision of the NEC that “all members who have been charged with corruption or other serious crimes must step aside within 30 days, failing which they should be suspended in terms of Rule 27.70 of the ANC constitution”.
The NWC also “noted”’ that provinces had been requested to compile a list of “the names of those members who have been charged with corruption or other serious crimes” and inform these members of the NEC decision.
Further noting that provinces had been asked to make comments on implementing the stand-aside guidelines, the NWC said this process would now be coordinated by a team of officials led by treasurer general Paul Mashatile.
Magashule, it said, would spend the 30-day period consulting the party’s elders, as agreed by the NEC.
The NWC statement was accompanied by a copy of the 14-page step-aside guidelines, which were endorsed by the NEC last month.
The NWC’S response is a blow to Magashule and his supporters in the so-called radical economic transformation faction, who were also ordered by the NEC to stop running parallel structures and using party resources and facilities for RET activities.
Last weekend ANC started its branch general meetings, which will elect leadership and delegates ahead of the more than 20 ANC provincial and regional conferences scheduled for the coming months.
It now appears that Magashule, who on Thursday was set to meet former president Jacob Zuma to discuss the stand-aside rule, will be forced to sit out the important conference cycle, which is historically overseen the ANC secretary general.
Magashule’s supporters and allies beyond the ANC appear to be broadening their strategy to start laying criminal charges against key leaders of the Ramaphosa faction so that they also be forced to stand aside ahead of key elective party conferences around the country.
On Wednesday, the Economic Freedom Fighters deputy president, Floyd Shivambu, laid corruption charges against Pravin Gordhan, a key Ramaphosa ally. The previous day Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng, during Judicial Service Commission interviews, had disclosed that Gordhan had inquired about how Judge Dhaya Pillay had fared in an earlier interview with the JSC.
Gordhan said in a letter to the secretary of the JSC that he had asked Mogoeng about Pillay’s interview “in passing” at a meeting with the chief justice to discuss other matters.
“As I recall, after the completion of the cordial discussion with the chief justice in April 2016, I did, in passing, refer to Judge Dhaya Pillay’s interview with the JSC to fill positions for the supreme court of appeal,” Gordhan said in a statement. “The chief justice responded. I then left. The inquiry about Judge Pillay was purely incidental to the purpose of the meeting. Any misrepresentation, wilfully or not, of the 6 April, 2016 meeting with the chief justice by political actors who want to defend state capture and corruption, is highly regrettable.”
On Wednesday, leaks emerged of a criminal case for intimidation being laid against Transport Minister, Fikile Mbalula, by a transport operator from Limpopo who Mbalula had allegedly threatened for branding taxis in support of Magashule and corruption accused ANC provincial treasurer Danny Msiza.
On Tuesday, IOL reported that a Reserve Bank shareholder, Fanie Fondse, had laid charges of corruption and racketeering against Ramaphosa over the award of a contract to build two schools in the Free State by Shanduka in 2015.
Ramaphosa was a majority shareholder in the Shanduka Group. He disinvested from Shanduka in 2014.
Mbalula’s spokesperson, Ayanda Allie-paine, said the ministry would not comment.
Police spokesperson Vishnu Naidoo said they were not aware of any case involving Mbalula.
Presidency spokesperson Tyrone Seale had not responded to calls from the M&G at the time of publication
ANC secretary general Ace Magashule’s attempt last week to get provincial secretaries to back his revolt against the step-aside process has backfired.
Instead of backing Magashule’s attempt to broaden the step-aside list to include ANC members accused of — but not charged with — corruption, secretaries of key provinces pushed back, calling for an urgent meeting of the party secretariat to confront him over his actions.
Three provincial leaders who spoke to the Mail & Guardian said Magashule’s gambit was rejected by most provinces, including the Eastern Cape, Northern Cape, Kwazulu-natal and Gauteng.
The provincial secretaries then demanded a meeting with Magashule and deputy secretary general Jesse Duarte. They withdrew the demand after the party’s national working committee shut Magashule down, issuing a statement contradicting him and placing ANC treasurer Paul Mashatile in charge of the step-aside process.
Two well placed sources also told the M&G that Duarte was blindsided by the letter, having only known that Magashule would remind the secretaries of the Thursday deadline.
The two sources say Duarte told the national working ciommittee that she had no idea Magashule had widened the scope of the step aside resolution adding that she was “irate” over the letter.
The secretary general is facing corruption charges over the R250million Free State asbestos roofing scandal and is out on R200000 bail pending the matter going to trial in the high court in Bloemfontein.
In his closing address during a NEC meeting late last month, President Cyril Ramaphosa said provincial secretaries had been given 30 days to effect the step-aside resolution. Party leaders would have to be informed before the end of April to step aside or face suspension.
The decision came during a chaotic meeting when Magashule’s loyalists threatened to resign.
In a letter last week, Magashule pointed to the December 2017 Nasrec resolution that reaffirmed the 2015 national general council resolution that “ANC leaders alleged to be involved in corrupt activities should, where necessary, step aside until their names are cleared”.
The resolutions also state that cadres accused of, or reported to be involved in corruption, immediately step aside or face a disciplinary committee.
One provincial leader told the M&G they had asked to meet Magashule about the letter.
“Push-back is very mischievous because they are deliberately making allegations and opening frivolous cases against us,” said the leader, who asked to remain anonymous.
He said Magashule was “clouding issues and distorting the real issue”.
“All those in the Zondo commission [into state capture] must resign, according to him, and must step aside. The president must step aside because of conference money allegations. He [Magashule] is mad.”
The president has been the target of corruption allegations from witnesses at the commission, at which he is due to appear later this month.
A provincial leader in the Eastern Cape, who also asked to remain anonymous, said the letter was rejected by the provincial executive committee. “The secretaries are mad [angry]. There needs to be clarity immediately, which is why they are calling for an urgent secretariat meeting.”
The M&G previously reported that Magashule also called on party branches to stand their ground and resist attempts to dissolve them ahead of crucial regional and provincial conferences, and the branch general meetings which precede them.
One ANC secretary said that Magashule told provincial secretaries during the NEC meeting that he was prepared to continue running ANC headquarters at Luthuli House in Johannesburg, adding that he would not be suspended or taken to a disciplinary process.
The ANC’S secretariat held a meeting in an attempt to contain growing frustration during the NEC meeting.
One Kwazulu-natal regional
ANC leader said their view was that Magashule had strayed from the NEC resolution in his letter.
“We are clear that the integrity commission is mandated to deal with those comrades who are facing allegations, and [it is] those who are actually facing charges that will have to stand aside. That is what the resolutions say,” said the regional leader, who also asked to remain anonymous. “There is a process that the NEC has agreed to and that is the process we need to follow.”
In a second apparent act of defiance aimed at the NEC, Magashule told ANC regional and provincial secretaries that no party structures are to be disbanded ahead of the branch general meetings, which began last weekend.
The branch general meetings have been called to elect delegates to impending regional and provincial conferences and to nominate candidates for leadership posts. The meetings are crucial in terms of who leads the party going into the local government elections later this year.
The same delegates will also attend the party’s mid-term national general council later in the year and will also form the core of those who attend the ANC’S next elective conference, at which Magashule’s supporters hope to field him as their presidential candidate.
In a letter written on 9 April, Magashule “reminded” regional and provincial ANC secretaries that the NEC had earlier decided that no more structures should be collapsed ahead of the branch general meetings and conferences. “We wish to remind you once more about the decisions of the previous NECS from 2018 to date, that no structures must be disbanded or dissolved.”
Magashule aims to stop the dissolution of branches supporting his faction in North West, Free State and other provinces ahead of the conferences.
The interim provincial committee running North West has disbanded its regions and has started a process of disbanding branches ahead of the regional and provincial conferences. The bulk of the branches support Magashule and his ally, former chairperson Supra Mahumapelo, who has come under fire from the interim provincial committee for allegedly running parallel structures and for orchestrating a campaign to force the committee out of office.
It also comes in response to the supreme court of appeal ruling that the 2018 Free State conference, which saw Magashule’s supporters make a clean sweep in the provincial executive committee elections, was unlawful.
The ANC leadership is still considering how to deal with the situation in the Free State — Magashule’s strongest support base where he was premier and ANC chairperson.
The national leadership favours collapsing the provincial executive committee and replacing it with a joint task team to run the ANC in the Free State until a new leadership is elected.
The provincial executive committee wants to appeal the ruling, but has been told not to do so by the ANC top six. Branches in the Free State backing the faction led by former MEC Mxolisi Dukwana want the order enforced immediately. The national working committee this week endorsed proposals that a “political solution” would be sought, an indication that a joint task team is on the cards.
ANC spokesperson Pule Mabe did not respond to calls from the M&G.
But a statement by the NWC on Wednesday said it “noted” that provinces had been asked to submit names of “those members who have been charged with corruption or other serious crimes”.
It made no mention of those who had been accused of crimes but not charged, saying only that the report of the integrity commission, which had been dealing with ANC members accused of corruption, was being “processed”.
The national working committee said a team of officials led by Mashatile would take over the process of coordinating recommendations from provinces about the implementation of the step-aside guidelines and report back to it.