Mbete claims plot to unseat Zuma

Speaker of Parliament Baleka Mbete has claimed there is an attempt to oust President Jacob Zuma. File photo: Elmond Jiyane

Speaker of Parliament Baleka Mbete has claimed there is an attempt to oust President Jacob Zuma. File photo: Elmond Jiyane

Published Apr 14, 2015

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Johannesburg - ANC national chairwoman Baleka Mbete believes there is an internal plot to unseat President Jacob Zuma before he completes his second term.

Speaking at the ANC Limpopo provincial general council in Polokwane on Sunday night, Mbete said Zuma’s detractors who failed to oust him as party leader in Mangaung in 2012 had regrouped to plot his downfall.

Without mentioning names, Mbete said: “There are people there in Parliament who’ve allowed themselves to become part of a whole huge ‘Zuma must go’ agenda.”

She said Zuma’s foes within the party were plotting with opposition politicians by holding clandestine meetings.

The plan, she said, was to oust Zuma during the ANC national general council (NGC) in October. The NGC is held between national conferences, and it is meant to, among other things, evaluate the performance of national executive committee members, of which Zuma forms part, according to the ANC constitution.

Analysts said on Monday that Mbete’s statements were part of a desperate attempt by Zuma loyalists to delegitimise the growing restlessness about his leadership.

“It’s one of the most far-reaching statements coming from a senior ANC leader. It shows how high up the anti-Zuma sentiment goes in the ANC,” political analyst Professor Susan Booysen said.

“That is the best way to delegitimise it and consolidate Zuma’s support and to get him to finish his (second) term. What’s clear is that the plot against Zuma is clearly thickening considerably.”

Professor Steven Friedman agreed, saying there was a section in the ANC that perceived Zuma as a liability.

He said Mbete’s utterances were also a symptom that the party had not been able to deal with the acrimonious tension arising from the factional battles in Mangaung.

“There is a faction in the ANC that wouldn’t like him to finish his term, either because they don’t like him or because they want to push Cyril Ramaphosa to become the next president,” Friedman said.

Mbete’s statements, he added, were indicative of the divisiveness of regional politics playing out in the ANC.

“Part of this has to do with regional politics. A section of the KwaZulu-Natal ANC have made it clear that they think the next president should come from the province, and there is resistance obviously from other provinces.

“It’s clear that some factions want Zuma out. It’s not as if he has united the ANC behind him, and Mbete is clearly distressed by that, and that is why she is responding in this way.”

In her speech on Sunday night, Mbete reminded Zuma’s detractors that they had been defeated in Mangaung.

“So what the ANC has decided no longer matters; it’s about individuals with their wills, together with their allies in other caucuses in other benches right there in Parliament,” she said.

Mbete did not name the alleged conspirators but urged ANC delegates to watch all the conspirators they had sent to represent the party in Parliament.

“Where is the ANC when that’s happening? Is the ANC sleeping? Is it absent? Why?” Mbete asked, reminding delegates that Zuma was elected by ANC branches to lead the implementation of party policies.

“Who am I to come out of there and be part of a caucus, a campaign to destabilise the ANC? Why allow myself to be involved in this dirt; it’s dirty,” said Mbete.

ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe reacted angrily when contacted for comment.

“Speak to Baleka, I’m not a speech writer. Don’t go to Zizi Kodwa (the ANC spokesman), go to Baleka. You are unethical because you are inherently divisive, you guys (the media),” he said.

Mbete’s spokeswoman, Mandlakazi Sigcawu, refused to comment and referred enquiries to the ANC.

 

Not THE first conspiracy claim

This isn’t the first time Zuma’s name has been mentioned in relation to a conspiracy to capture state power.

The so-called Special Browse Mole Report of 2007 suggested that Angolan intelligence forces plotted to support the then axed deputy president Zuma’s attempt to take over the presidency.

The report had reportedlybeen compiled by the disbanded crime-fighting unit, the Scorpions. It led to then president Thabo Mbeki’s downfall at Polokwane in December 2007.

Subsequently, Zuma was elected to steer the ANC.

Mbeki’s government at the time dismissed the report as a creation of “information pedlars”.

The timing of the release of that report sparked speculation that Zuma’s sympathisers leaked it to blemish the Scorpions’ reputation.

The Scorpions were leading the corruption investigation against Zuma, which the National Prosecuting Authority dropped shortly before the 2009 elections, paving Zuma’s road to the presidency.

The Polokwane conference that elected Zuma as ANC president resolved to disband the Scorpions on the grounds that it was being abused to fight political battles.

In 2011, media reports suggested that the then KwaZulu-Natal premier and now ANC treasurer, Zweli Mkhize, was part of a plot to oust Zuma as the leader of the ANC and install former human settlements minister Tokyo Sexwale as the ruling party’s president.

Mkhize later reaffirmed his support for the ANC president “now and all the way” to the party’s elective conference in Mangaung – ending monthsof speculation about a fallout between Mkhize and Zuma.

On Monday night, an ANC regional leader in Limpopo, commenting anonymously, said that if the allegations were true, those behind the plot were wasting their time.

“If it’s true that there is a plot to remove that man in the PGC (provincial general council), it means those people don’t understand ANC politics.

“Zuma is well entrenched now,” he added.

“In fact, this may just embolden him to seek a third term as ANC president at the next conference,” he said.

The Star

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