Durban - An hour-long television interview by Newzroom Afrika with ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule has given hints that the ruling party is mulling a range of changes regarding its elective conferences and wants the state to fund parties to curb opaque and tainted donations.
The interview was aired on Sunday with Magashule revealing that while they have no idea why their political opponents are calling for harmonised local, provincial and national elections, as the ANC they want a “seamless type of governance” at all three levels.
“We want to have a seamless type of governance, the municipality, if it’s five years, it must be five years at province, national and at ground level,” he said.
He said since history has shown the party that once a leader leaves party power, he is recalled and creates instability, they also want to harmonise internal ANC elections.
“Same with the ANC, if possible… we want to align the elections of the ANC (to avoid recalls),” he said.
In the early years of democracy, the ANC held its national elective conferences two years before national elections. That was done to give the party enough time to heal divisions that arose in the run-up to the conference and start a smooth transition. However, since the turbulent Polokwane conference when Jacob Zuma ousted Thabo Mbeki, a precedent of recalling presidents has taken root.
During the interview, Magashule was also asked about municipal bad audits and the Zuma years. He defended the party, saying, unlike the Apartheid government, it was transparent. He then defended Zuma saying he did not take individual decisions while he was in power. He said decisions were taken by a robust cabinet.
“Zuma was there with ministers. Were these ministers robots? Things go through cabinet, things go through the executive council, you tell me that Zuma had ministers who were afraid of Zuma? This is not the leadership of the ANC I know, I know the leadership of the ANC, I know those ministers, they were people who could engage… Are you saying Zuma is corrupt, no,” Magashule said.
Magashule was asked about corruption allegations that followed many party leaders. He was also asked about the party’s national executive committee decision to reinstate VBS scandal-tainted Limpopo leaders, Danny Msiza and Florence Radzilani. He said the decision was taken by the whole party and he was merely communicating the decision.
“We have taken the right decision and we are not undermining anybody… but why do you want to hang people for things you don’t know? Based on these lies floated by the media, consciously and deliberately, to flush the ANC out of power, I am not Ace Magashule the individual, I am the messenger of the African National Congress,” Magashule responded when asked about their decision.
Furthermore, Magashule said he said he stands for the poor and wants equal treatment for everybody.
But Magashule was very evasive when asked whether or not he would support the re-election of Ramaphosa as party president in 2022 since he claims that he is happy with how his government is handling the Covid-19 crisis. He did say however that he supports his leadership even though he was on the slate of Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma ahead of the 2017 Nasrec conference.
“After each and every conference of the ANC we have always embraced the elected leadership. So I do support President Ramaphosa and maybe before Nasrec and immediately after Nasrec there were these tussles, we are working excellently as the top six, we are working excellently as the national executive committee.”