By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
@AlonSkuy.
The escalating tensions in the ruling African National Congress finally came to a head on Wednesday when its secretary-general Ace Magashule was informed by his deputy, Jessie Duarte, that he’d been suspended pending his trial on graft charges.
Magashule hit back hours later, insisting that he wasn’t going anywhere and notifying party leader and president Cyril Ramaphosa that he was the one being suspended for violating campaign funding rules.
An NEC meeting scheduled for this weekend should provide clarity on how much residual support Magashule and his allies retain within its ranks. Its expected confirmation of his suspension will boost Ramaphosa’s prospects of wining a second term as ANC leader next year and extending his presidency for another five years in 2024.
Some senior ANC members who spoke on condition of anonymity vowed to push for the ANC to organise a disciplinary process because Magashule defied the conditions of his suspension by communicating with journalists and the public about the party’s decision, despite the gagging order imposed on him.
His defiance came when the governing party was at the stage of cleansing itself of corruption, ill-discipline and anarchy.
Magashule’s defiance would top the agenda at the NEC meeting scheduled from tomorrow to Monday, where a heated debate was expected.
Magashule, 61, stands accused of corruption, fraud and money-laundering relating to an audit contract issued while he was premier of the central Free State province, and his trial is due to resume in August.
While Ramaphosa, 68, is fighting a lawsuit aimed at forcing him to disclose who paid for his campaign to win control of the ANC, he hasn’t been prosecuted and there is no party provision for Magashule to unilaterally discipline him.
The power play dates back to December 2017, when more than 4,000 ANC representatives gathered at the Nasrec conference center in Soweto near Johannesburg to choose a replacement for Jacob Zuma, who was stepping down as party leader after two terms.
Zuma threw his backing behind his ex-wife Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, a veteran politician in her own right. But Ramaphosa, a lawyer who founded the National Union of Mineworkers, led the negotiations to end apartheid and then accumulated a fortune after founding his own investment company, ultimately emerged as the winner with 52% of the vote.
His victory was somewhat tainted because Zuma allies secured several other leadership posts. Magashule’s razor-thin win over Senzo Mchunu — now the public service minister — in the race for secretary-general was particularly galling because whoever fills the post has control over the day-to-day running of the ANC and has the potential to influence who gets to vote in future leadership contests.
Zuma’s scandal-marred nine-year rule had caused the ANC to hemorrhage support and it forced him to quit in February 2018 under threat of impeachment. Ramaphosa replaced him and set about purging most Zuma allies from the cabinet and removing the heads of the National Prosecuting Agency, South African Revenue Service and other key state institutions.
But the new president struggled to exert his authority over the NEC, which was directly elected by the ANC delegates. It included a large contingent of Zuma loyalists loosely coalesced around Magashule that was dubbed the radical economic transformation faction.
Magashule repeatedly undermined Ramaphosa, refusing to credit him for the party’s resounding 2019 election victory and contradicting several of his policy pronouncements. Leaked accounts of NEC meetings indicated the rival actions were constantly at each others’ throats. Magashule often delivered statements about the panel’s deliberations that other members contradicted.
The first indication that Ramaphosa was gaining the upper hand came in last July, when he took over the communication of the NEC’s decisions. Then the panel announced that it would implement a resolution the ANC had adopted at its 2017 conference to force officials to step down or be suspended.
After Magashule was charged in November, the ANC’s ethics committee recommended that he should quit or have his membership withdrawn. His fate was sealed at a March meeting of the NEC, which gave him 30 days to vacate his post. He refused, triggering his suspension, which will be reviewed every six months.
Several other Ramaphosa foes are also in the firing line, including Bongani Bongo, who served as Zuma’s state security minister and is facing graft charges. He denies wrongdoing.