Siseko Maposa
On February 3, at a media briefing outside the home of late Struggle veteran Rebecca Kotane, ANC secretary general Ace Magashule asserted that he “does not see anything wrong with what President Zuma has done”.
This was in response to Zuma’s defiance of the Constitution following the Constitutional Court’s ruling which obliged him to attend the Zondo Commission on state capture to answer damning allegations implicating him in corruption during his presidency.
The media briefing was rather bizarre. On the one hand, it was a complete shame that Magashule passed these statements during a time of national mourning at the home of one of the bastions of our modern democracy. Mam’Kotane was an active freedom fighter notably taking part in the 1956 women’s march to the Union Buildings as part of the defiance campaign.
On the other hand, Magashule seemed notably bewildered. At first, he refused to answer any Zuma related questions but after provocative journalism by Samkele Maseko his hidden dispositions about the rule of law were vividly exposed. We witnessed, in part, the disregard for the Constitution within the ANC senior leadership.
This disregard rears its ugly head from time to time, but never this vivid and overt.
Magashula’s attitude speaks to the moral decay which has gripped the senior rankings of the ANC.
At a much more comprehensive level, this moral decay cannot be detached from the on-going death of the Republic – an occurrence which has had a terrible impact on all South Africans.
“The Republic is dead! Long Live the Republic” perhaps best encapsulates the difficulties we face as a country. The age old expression presents an unequivocal realisation, “The Republic is dead”, followed by the nostalgic call to re-establish a noble and cherished mode of governance, “Long Live the Republic!” The Republic dies at the point in which it ceases to be democratic and instead meets the needs of an elite rent-seeking class at the expense of citizens.
We cannot begin to understand this crisis without looking at the men and women who govern this nation.
Currently, the ANC’s top 6 officials are all alleged or implicated in corruption scandals.
Magashule himself is out on R200 000 bail after being arrested on 21 charges of fraud, corruption and money laundering stemming from his work as premier of the Free State.
The State alleges that Magashule gave the “false appearance that a contract between the Free State Department of Human Settlements and a joint venture between Diamond Hill and Edwin Sodi's Blackhead Consulting was lawful and that he had no personal financial interest in the deal”.
To the contrary, it is alleged that Magashule received and authorised on behalf of others payments to the sum of R1.1 million from murdered businessman Ignatius Mpambani who was head of Diamond Hill Trading.
At the head of the party, Ramaphosa was recently accused by former Eskom chief executive Brian Molefe of being involved in the irregular awarding of contracts at Eskom.
Molefe alleged a conflict of interest when Ramaphosa, during his deputy presidency, became Eskom board chairman and awarded a multi-million rand contract to commodity multinational company Glencore for which he had 10% shareholdings.
Second in command, ANC deputy president David Mabuza has had his fair share of scandals.
Mabuza has been accused of corruption, tender fraud and being behind the assassination of political opponents while premier of Mpumalanga. In October 2020, he was unable to confirm or deny claims that he had conducted business with Patrick Donald Chirwa who had been alleged of corruption in a R124 million land deal.
ANC national chair Gwede Mantashe’s foundation received a R935 000 payment from electrical wholesaler Voltex after a letter emerged from its COO, with the foundation’s letterhead, acknowledging receipt of the money via a holding company called Ntlokholo Investments.
The payments were questionable as the investment company was not linked to the deal between Solid State Power and the Department of Energy. Sensinga political backlash over the transaction, Mantashe swiftly fired the foundation’s COO.
ANC deputy secretary general Jessie Duarte was mentioned in the Zondo Commission on state capture allegations. In 2019, it was reported that Duarte was linked to the Gupta family after the revelation that her son benefited from the Gupta’s loot of state funds.
ANC treasurer Paul Mashatile was also mentioned in the Zondo commission as one of the many ANC officials who received money from tender entrepreneur Edwin Sodi.
The ANC top 6 is indeed troubled. What happens at Luthuli House has tremendous implications to the governance of South Africa.
The ANC moral degeneration must be appreciated for what it means for the rest of the country ‒ the slow death of republican statehood.
It is in the corridors and boardrooms of Luthuli House and through the men and women tasked to govern the ruling party that national policy is discussed and the ethos, credence and administration of our public policy is decided upon.
As the ANC attempts to sort itself out South Africans need to be active participants in the political realm. The safeguarding of our country is a national duty which we all, in whatever capacity we find ourselves in, must participate in.
* Maposa is a political-economist. He holds a Masters in International Relations from UCT.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of IOL.