Johannesburg -An ANC branch in Vembe region, Limpopo, has thrown its weight behind the party’s secretary-general Ace Magashule after allegations that he was involved in a murder of a doctor who had won a tender in the Free State.
The City Press newspaper was expected to publish the shocking allegations against Magashule as the breaking story on Sunday, but the story had already gone public.
The newspaper claimed to be in possession of a document from Counterintelligence, a Crime Intelligence’s division, that implicated “former Provincial Premier, a serving national minister, MECs of Health and senior managers in the Provincial Department of Health” in the murder of the doctor who was killed last year.
“They must leave our Ace alone,” said Fistos Mafela, chairperson of Ward 8 in the region. Mafela said he was also the ANC Youth League coordinator in Vembe and chief whip of the ANC in a local municipality.
Masela said there were certain people within the ANC who had been “bought by white people” to carry an agenda to destroy Magashule.
“They cannot stop us from supporting him because we will support him whether they tell lies or not.
“We have said that we want unity in the ANC but there are people who still factionalising our ANC, but we will defend our ANC,” said Mafela.
A City Press journalist claimed the murdered doctor had received a multi-million Free State provincial government tender with an agreement that he would give part of the money to certain ANC leaders in the province in a bid to buy ANC’s 2017 Nasrec conference candidate to vote in a certain way.
“Siemens reneged on the deal, which led to his murder.
“Why did the ANC in Free State want to buy ANC delegates in the first place?” wrote the journalist.
The journalist further said as the provincial chairperson at the time, Magashule should have known about the plan to buy delegates.
“You were also contesting your current position and if there was a plan to buy delegates, you would have known about it and you would have been part of it.
“You knew of the plans to buy delegates at the conference and you did nothing about it?” said the journalist.
The journalist wanted Magashule to explain whether or not he had interacted with a murder suspect, who had allegedly threatened state witnesses.