Magashule a victim of fake statement

Not only is Comrade Elias Sekgobelo Magashule not going anywhere, but as the Secretary-General of the ANC, he has elected to suspend ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa.

Except it’s fake news, according to ANC spokesman Pule Mabe.

“In this digital age, anyone can create anything.

“Any communication about the ANC and its affairs would have come from us,” Mabe told The Citizen last night.

In the statement with an ANC letterhead which came from one Afrika Dzonga using a Gmail address, Magashule said he was issuing the statement in his “capacity as Secretary-General of the African National Congress [ANC]”.

Dzonga did not respond to requests for further information.

“I have received a letter under the signature of the Deputy Secretary-General, comrade Jessie Duarte, that temporarily suspends me for an initial period of six months,” Magashule purportedly said.

Magashule was earlier this week suspended by the party’s national working committee for failing to abide by a step-aside order.

He was supposed to have noted the various rules of the ANC under which he had been suspended by his deputy, Duarte, but said she did not have the authority to do so.

“Thus the letter is fatally flawed, and in fact unconstitutional,” Dzonga quoted Magashule as apparently saying in the seeming hoax letter to a wide variety of media.

Dzonga, if that is his real name, said Magashule said he was suspending Ramaphosa.

“I have also, in accordance with the powers vested in me as the Secretary General of the ANC, and furthermore in full compliance with the relevant conference Resolutions summarily suspended the President of the ANC, comrade Cyril Ramaphosa,” Magashule said.

“This is done in terms of Resolution 8.2 of the 54th National Conference, which states that, ‘... every cadre accused of, or reported to be involved in, corrupt practices accounts to the Integrity Committee immediately, or faces DC processes...’ and Resolution 8.3 that further provides for the suspension of ‘...people who fail to give an acceptable explanation, or to voluntarily step down while they face disciplinary, investigative or prosecutorial procedures’.”

Resolution 8.2 of the 54th National Conference deals with many things, but cadre corruption isn’t one of them.

That particular part can be found on page 21 in the section titled ANC Credibility and Integrity: dealing with corruption as point two of the resolutions.