Religious leaders back embattled Magashule

RELIGIOUS leaders have come out to support ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule with his court battle. They believe the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has no case against him.

Religious leader and KwaZulu-Natal Interfaith Council member Bishop Sandile Ndlela said the numerous postponements were an indication of a travesty of justice.

“It is truly a travesty of justice to first arrest and charge someone and then try to conjure up a case against the accused afterwards,” Ndlela said.

He said as the council they were convinced that the trumped-up charges of so-called undefined “oversight charges” are solely political.

“The purpose of this travesty of justice, was only to abuse the legal processes in order to force the secretary-general of the ANC to step-aside, and to eventually suspend him,” Ndlela said.

He said politics should stay in the political realm and law should be independent and highlighted the false claims made by the NPA about having the former personal assistant of Magashule, Moroadi Cholota, on their witness (list) in their case against him.

“Now that it is evident that the NPA lied about her being a witness, they are trying to intimidate her by threatening that they will charge her too,” he said.

Ndlela said the church leaders were asking for the charges on Magashule to be dropped, saying they cannot sit idly and watch the constitutional state being destroyed by a mafia axis of ruthless and corrupt politicians.

Former Umkhonto weSizwe Military Veterans’ Association spokesperson Carl Niehaus, who attended the birthday celebration of Magashule after his court appearance with the religious leaders, echoed the sentiment that the state had no case against Magashule.

“This is the kind of thing that happens when you first arrest and then try to charge, we are sick and tired of political machinations, in order to abuse our political systems. To make sure our legal system is used for factional political purposes,” he said.

He said the results of the local government elections throughout the country were because of the failure of the current leadership of the ANC.

“The national executive committee, the five national office-bearers and the President of the ANC Cyril Ramaphosa have failed, the African National Congress.

Niehaus said this performance should be enough for them to “fall on their swords”.