There is a sinister machinery working against us, says Ace
ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule has come out guns blazing against what he perceived as intensified efforts targeted at the governing party’s secretariat.
In an interview with Independent Media yesterday, Magashule said the attack included the hacking of the cellphone of his deputy Jessie Duarte and the poisoning of one of his staff members.
This takes place as Magashule has to contend with revelations coming from a recently-published book and testimony at the Zondo Commission dating back to his tenure as Free State premier and ANC provincial chairperson.
“There is an intensified effort to undermine and injure the SGO (secretary-general office),” Magashule said.
“Not long ago the DSG’s (Jessie Duarte) social media accounts were hacked, now an employee of the organisation in my office has been poisoned. I can confirm that Chris Ackeer, who is a manager in the SGO, has been poisoned and is currently hospitalised,” he said.
His comments come in the wake of media reports that his purported right-hand man survived an attempt to poison him.
A Sunday newspaper reported that Ackeer, who is reportedly Magashule’s strategic manager at Luthuli House, was discharged from a Joburg hospital on Friday, two weeks after being admitted.
Ackeer is the second person with links to Magashule to have been poisoned. The head of the Free State Department of Police, Safety and Transport, Sandile Msibi‚ died in December 2017 after being poisoned.
In March, the ANC claimed that the communication devices of Duarte had been hacked. The party said at the time that Duarte’s emails and messaging systems were targeted and interfered with and a WhatsApp text purporting to be from her was circulated.
Magashule was adamant that the incidents showed that his office was being targeted. “…all of this is not coincidental, especially with all the lies reported about me in the media a month before the elections. There is machinery working against us,” Magashule said.
When asked who or what that “machinery” was, Magashule said: “We won’t reveal what we know now, but we know.”
He has been under renewed scrutiny after journalist and author Pieter-Louis Myburgh published a book, Gangster State: Unravelling Ace Magashule’s Web
of Capture. It details allegations including claims that Magashule demanded 10% kickbacks from businesspeople in exchange for securing lucrative contracts.
Former Free State MEC Mxolisi Dukwana on Friday testified before the Zondo Commission that he was offered a bribe by one of the Gupta brothers in the presence of Magashule.
Magashule has denied any wrongdoing and threatened legal action against Myburgh and Dukwana.
Duarte and Ackeer could not be reached for comment.