‘What if Cyril has case to answer?’
● Former president Thabo Mbeki says the ANC cannot avoid discussing whether it will ask President Cyril Ramaphosa to step aside should a panel appointed by parliament find he has an impeachable case to answer.
Mbeki was addressing the Strategic Dialogue Group event in Johannesburg yesterday.
National Assembly speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula this month appointed former chief justice Sandile Ngcobo, judge Thokozile Masipa and advocate Mahlape Sello to the panel that will conduct a preliminary assessment as to whether Ramaphosa has a case to answer.
This follows a motion of no confidence tabled by the ATM after allegations that foreign currency amounting to millions of rands was stolen from the president’s Phala Phala farm and that he tried to sweep the crime under the carpet.
“What happens if they [the panel] say he’s got a case to answer? What do we do? Because the population out there’s conclusion will be: ‘There’s something wrong there,’ maybe wrongly because, indeed, somebody is innocent until proven guilty,” said Mbeki.
“A panel like that saying so does not mean it’s correct, but I’m saying, you put out a notion like that coming from this team of three senior lawyers, and they say we’ve looked at what we have, what we can, and it seems to us there’s a case to answer.
“The leadership of the ANC cannot avoid meeting to discuss the question and, in light of that, what do we do? Do we say to the president he must step aside or do we say ‘no, let it continue through the parliamentary process?’ What is the impact of that on the ANC in the public mind?”
Mbeki has reiterated his support for the ANC’s step-aside rule, saying those calling its scrapping did not understand the ANC.
The resolution has come under severe attack from several corners of the ANC, with some party leaders calling for the governing party to do away with it or have it reviewed.
Mbeki said ANC members must have frank discussions about those who want to be elected who have called for the reversal of the rule, with a view of rejecting their proposed election.
“... to talk very frankly to say, ‘but the proposal you are making that we must vote for comrade so and so is wrong we cannot support that’. Comrades who stand up and say this step-aside thing is wrong, must be changed,” Mbeki said.
His comments come as the ANC edges closer to its national elective conference in December, where some of those who have raised their hands for election have spoken out against the rule.
The rule calls for those who face criminal or corruption charges to vacate their positions either in the party or the government pending finalisation of their cases. An amended version of the rule further bars such people from standing for election at any conference.
Presidential hopefuls Zweli Mkhize and Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma are some of those who have spoken out against the rule.
Mbeki said those making such calls were anti-ANC and did not understand the party.
He gave an example of a Free State PEC member and an MEC, who also owned taxis, who resigned from both positions when he was charged following taxi-related murders.
Mbeki, without naming the person, applauded their resolve, saying the person appreciated the reputational damage their continued participation in the ANC could have had.
“He stepped down. He didn’t step aside, he stepped down,” Mbeki said, adding that the person was later acquitted.
“Now that’s a comrade who understood the ANC, who understood what it means to be a member. ‘I carry this label of a murderer. I’m not, but I carry this label, I can’t say because I’m innocent until proven guilty. Am I going to stay put? No.’ Anybody who says that you know very well is not ANC,” said Mbeki.