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ANC secretary-general goes on charm offensive ahead of step-aside deadline
WITH just two weeks remaining for ANC leaders charged with corruption and other serious charges to step aside, ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule has gone on a charm offensive, encouraging even the religious sector to assist the governing party in maintaining stability.
Magashule yesterday paid a visit to Jacob Zuma’s Nkandla homestead to seek advice from the former head of state.
He also revealed that he was also in consultation with the clergy as he sought guidance on the party’s step-aside rule.
The sitting of the party’s regular national executive committee (NEC) resolved last month that leaders facing corruption and other serious charges needed to step aside or face suspension.
In his list of those he would consult, Magashule mentioned former presidents Thabo Mbeki, Kgalema Motlanthe and Zuma, as well as former ANC treasurer-general Mathews Phosa. However, yesterday Magashule indicated he had also sought divine intervention from the church.
“I have done a lot of consultation, be it with churches, everybody. And I do have some guidance, not counselling, guidance,” he said.
On Tuesday, Magashule met Phosa, saying he had already been in talks with Motlanthe to plan for their meeting, while Mbeki would be the last of the senior party leaders he would meet.
Magashule would not be drawn on the granular details of his tête-à-tête with Zuma, but said that once his consultations were over, he would be briefing the media on the outcomes of the talks.
Outside of the resolution made by the ANC
NEC on the step-aside order, Magashule last week wrote to the party’s nine provincial secretaries requesting a list of names of all members charged with corruption or other serious crimes, and those who are alleged, reported or implicated in corrupt practices, to be submitted by today.
Yesterday, as his talks with Zuma got under way, about 300 pro-Magashule ANC members from the Free State protested outside the ANC’s Luthuli House headquarters, but the secretary-general distanced himself from the group.
“I haven’t and I will never mobilise anybody against the ANC; this is the time for the ANC to actually even unite more,” Magashule said.
ANC members, outside Luthuli House, insisted that branches held the power to choose the leaders they wanted in the ruling party, and they opposed recent decisions taken by the NEC.
They held placards with the names of prominent party leaders and a list of allegations that each were facing.
Thabo Baleni, from the ANC Belemond branch in the Free State, said: “We are saying that as and when the NEC applies some of the rules, such as the step-aside rule, it shouldn’t be conditional. It cannot be the structure, the NEC, that gets to come and make one step aside in such a critical position, as that of Magashule. It was us, delegated by our branches to go there, therefore if there is any matter that the ANC deems fit, they (the NEC) should consult with us through the National General Council…”
Concerning Magashule’s demand for a list of all members charged, ANC deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte said he did not consult the ANC’s Top 6 when he issued the letter to the party’s provincial secretaries.