Johannesburg - Tuesday’s revelations by the leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), Julius Malema, that senior ANC national executive committee member, Derek Hanekom, was lobbying them to help remove former President, Jacob Zuma in February 2018, came as a surprise to some quarters only.
Speaking to his party’s supporters who swarmed the precinct of the Pretoria high court to support the Public Protector, Advocate Busisiwe Mkhwebane, against public enterprises minister, Pravin Gordhan’s bid to set aside findings, Malema revealed that Hanekom and Mapaila gave them a list of ANC MPs who were prepared to vote with them in order to remove Zuma who was refusing to vacate office at the end of his ANC Presidency at Nasrec in 2017.
In the Zuma years as president, the ANC got so divided that for the first time since 1994 when it took power, some of its leaders openly flirted with opposition parties and civic organisations with a questionable agenda. Remember the #ZumaMustFall march and its participants from ANC partners and members?
We look at five instances where Malema exposed alleged ANC snitches; and how this could come back to bite the ruling party.
Secret ballot against Zuma (July 2017)
At the height of the Zuma’s presidency turmoil in 2017, the then-speaker of the National Assembly, Baleka Mbete received a request for a vote of no confidence against Zuma. The EFF and the Democratic Alliance (DA) wanted it to be conducted through a secret ballot after a June 2017 Concourt ruling which ruled it can be done in that way.
Signalling that he had inside information that Zuma was no longer enjoying solid support, Malema said more than 60 ANC MPs were willing to vote with them. He said: “I personally spoke to more than 60 MPs of the ANC who have committed that if we give them a secret ballot, they will deliver.”
At that time, the opposition needed 50 of the 249 ANC MPs to support the no-confidence motion which later failed.
Election of Ramaphosa as ANC president (December 2017)
While he had previously said he believed that Ramaphosa’s opponent, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma was going to snatch the ANC presidency crown, Malema was one of the few to hint on Twitter that Ramaphosa had won while the nation waited for the official announcement on December 18, 2017. This implies that someone from within the ANC was leaking the information to Malema and he is likely to reveal it one day just like he did with his interaction with Hanekom and Mapaila.
Predicting Zuma's resignation (February 2018)
With the ANC having asked Zuma to vacate his seat as the head of state, little credible information was coming out until Malema tweeted on February 6, 2018 that Zuma was going to back down and leave his position after initially digging in. Malema said most ANC national working committee members who met a few days before the announcement had spoken in favour of Zuma's removal, suggesting that there was a mole who was feeding him information. Tuesday’s outing of Hanekom raises speculations that he will one day reveal who gave him that information.
On huge sums of money spent at the ANC's elective conference (November 2018)
Speaking to journalist long before Mkhwebane revealed the amount of money used to secure votes during the party’s Nasrec conference in 2017, Malema said Ramaphosa had to come out. He said the information was coming from the intelligence but critics believed it came from ANC insiders who are trying to discredit each other. In his own words he said: “Too much money was used in Nasrec and that money was not declared. The president never declared that he had established a trust which was meant to finance his campaign for the ANC presidency. Only now the president makes a u-turn.”
Prepare yourselves for the presidency of David Mabuza (July 2, 2019)
Addressing the media, Malema repeated claims that Ramaphosa will not finish his term as president and would be replaced by his deputy, David Mabuza. In April this year he said the party was going to “vomit someone” and that someone he said was Ramaphosa. He also once said there was a group lobbying within the ANC to replace Ramaphosa with Mabuza who was slowly being accepted by party members as the next leader of the party. This assertion was based on insight gleaned from insiders and he will use that insight against the party one day.
Malema is also likely to keep on exposing moles within the ruling party whenever it suits him.