Johannesburg - ANC chief whip Mathole Motshekga has become the latest senior party leader to break ranks, saying the ANC “cannot and should not accept collective responsibility” for the actions of President Jacob Zuma “and all those implicated by the State Capture Report” .
In a document sent to Independent Media, The Honourable Thing To Do, Motshekga says “the situation is so serious that the ANC leadership must choose between the president on one hand, and the ANC and the people of South Africa, on the other hand”.
Motshekga is a member of the ANC national executive committee (NEC) and chairman of the parliamentary portfolio on justice and correctional services. He is also a former Gauteng provincial premier and husband to Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga.
Read Mathole Motshekga’s explosive document here
In the document, Motshekga suggests that the ANC leadership convene an urgent national executive committee (NEC) meeting and “ask the president to do the honourable thing and assist him in whatever way possible to endure the situation”.
He further makes a case for the appointment of Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa to take over from Zuma.
However, a defiant Zuma finally broke his silence on Saturday on the release of the state capture report and dared his opponents that he was not scared of prison, saying he spent many years in jail in the past.
Zuma, who was speaking at the ANC’s victory rally in eDumbe, northern KwaZulu-Natal on Saturday, said the country was now governed through the courts as opposition parties and civil society took him and the government to court every day.
He also took a swipe at ANC stalwarts for calling on him to go, and said they must stop organising outside ANC structures.
Former President Thabo Mbeki was also not spared by Zuma as he fought back after a week of high drama which saw him implicated by former public protector Thuli Madonsela in her report.
Zuma told thousands of ANC supporters that he cannot be threatened by opposition parties with imprisonment.
Zuma was speaking ahead of tomorrow’s National Working Committee (NWC) meeting where he is expected to emerge unscathed after the issue of state capture has been discussed.
This will be the second scandal which Zuma appears destined to survive after the Nkandla fallout that had a ripple effect across the ANC, the alliance and the country.
Zuma’s supporters have already come out in his defence. But the NEC meeting at the end of next month could lead to more divisions after Zuma’s foes warned after Nkandla that there should be no more scandals. NEC members said on Saturday the capture report was a serious issue that would be interrogated at the NEC meeting.
But the NWC gathering will give direction if the issue of state capture will receive special attention or will be discussed in November. The NWC could decide that the NEC holds a special meeting to discuss the issue or leave it for the scheduled meeting.
In a separate development on Saturday, former ANC MP Vytjie Mentor claimed the Hawks attempted to persuaded her to remove information that implicated Zuma in her affidavit on how the Guptas offered her a cabinet post. Mentor said the official from the Hawks visited her at her house in Cape Town. “He said I must consider removing the president’s name in my statement because it’s going to be dead in the water.”
Hawks spokesman Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi denied this but Mentor added that the man said: “You are tying our hands if you put the president in the statement. He said I was going to make it difficult for them to investigate.”
She said she was surprised and frustrated that she would have to beg the Hawks to investigate. Mentor was the first ANC official to make allegations that the Gupta family was offering cabinet posts to ANC MPs.
Her allegations and those made by deputy finance minister who claimed to have been offered a position of finance minister led to the investigation which this week delivered a damning verdict on Zuma and calls for his resignation.
According to Motshekga, “President Jacob Zuma, like all of us is a fallible human being. He has no inborn entitlement to the presidency.”
He goes on to suggest that if Zuma “has committed errors of judgement, or violated the law and/or the code of ethics, then the law must allowed to take its course. But the ANC as an organisation that carries the hopes and aspirations of the overwhelming majority of South Africans cannot afford to leave the situation of the president to his conscience” as this is the “option that should have been opened to him a long time ago”.
He, however, says secretary-general Gwede Mantashe “was right to leave the matter (of Zuma’s future) to the conscience of the president to heed or not heed the call for his resignation”.
Referring to Zuma’s constant “humiliation” by the EFF in Parliament, Motshekga says his “conscience does not allow” him “to countenance another humiliating treatment of our president.
“His situation is untenable, and to continue leaving the matter to his conscience is not in the best interest of the ANC, and the people of South Africa.”
He says no one can claim authority unless it is based on the will of the people. Motshekga proposes that the ANC leadership must convene an urgent NEC meeting and “ask the president to do the honourable thing and assist him in whatever way possible to endure the situation.
In an apparent reference to the party’s Chief Whip Jackson Mthembu’s call for the entire NEC to resign, Motshekga says “it would be irresponsible to ask the ANC NEC to resign; and leave the cabinet leadership in a chaotic manner.”
Suggesting Ramaphosa be appointed to take over from Zuma, Motshekga says the ANC “culture and pecking order dictates that if the president is unable, for whatever reasons, to exercise his powers and perform his duties, his deputy must step in”.
He says he ANC has a “highly incredible unifying figure in the person of Ramaphosa.”
Also, “ the current ANC leadership must recognise that the ANC belongs to the people of South Africa as whole.”
He says ANC branches “are merely vehicles for the will of the people, not ANC members, and regardless of their standing in the organisation or society, may (not) hold office contrary to the will of the people”.
Motshekga recalls how when circumstances dictated that Tokyo Sexwale, the first premier of Gauteng step aside, he did so without dissent.Sexwale was himself succeeded by Motsheka who was (also) himself was dismissed as Gauteng premier by Mbeki when he became president in June 1999.
Motshekga’s political fortunes were resuscitated when Zuma ousted Mbeki as ANC president at the Polokwane conference in December 2007.
Turning to the state capture report, Motshekga argues that it has created a moral and political dilemma for the ANC leadership. He says “members of the ANC join the organisation as individuals, not as groups. “Each individual is admitted to membership on the grounds that they accept the principles of the ANC. In my view the principle of personal responsibility is built into the Constitution of the ANC. However, this personal responsibility is exercised within a collective to ensure organisational coherence. In the course of time, collective responsibility (is) overshadowed (by) personal responsibility.”
Making a case for Ramaphosa’s appointment, Motshekga reveals he was part of the small NEC task team “that managed the recall of Mbeki.
“In his case, we decide to put comrade Kgalema Motlanthe in as an interim measure.
“This was dictated by the exceptional circumstances at the time. In the present circumstances, we do not need interim solutions,” he says.Motshekga also touches on the attempt to prosecute Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan, which he says “led the ANC into a crisis situation and conflicting organisational positions”.
This crisis situation was worsened by the release of the state capture report implicating Zuma and instructing him to appoint a judicial commission headed by a judge selected by Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng.
Independent Media