Former North West premier Supra Mahumapelo has called on the ANC’s national executive committee (NEC) to take action against donors to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s presidential campaign for having allegedly colluded with ANC members to destabilise the governing party and “hijack the revolution”.
Speaking to Sunday Independent on Friday, Mahumapelo said the NEC needed to take a “dim view” of the R1billion CR17 donation by mainly captains of industry because it
shows that those who “control monopoly capital can access the democratic processes of the ANC, influence them and change the direction of the revolution”.
The former provincial ANC chairperson has also urged the party’s national leadership to discipline the beneficiaries of the CR17 campaign funds, including members of a “revolutionary council” who dislodged him from power in North West last year, for allegedly having used unconstitutional and criminal means to further their political ends.
Sunday Independent reported last month that large corporations and prominent businessmen had donated millions of rand to help Ramaphosa
win the ANC presidential contest in 2017.
The donors included billionaire businessman Nicky Oppenheimer’s family, Pick * Pay founder Raymond Ackerman, former Imperial Holdings CEO Mark Lamberti, Eskom board member Sifiso Dabengwa, former Absa chief executive Maria Ramos and Aspen Pharmacare director Stavros Nicolaou.
The beneficiaries included a group of politicians and campaign managers, among them NEC member Enoch Godongwana, Ramaphosa’s adviser Marion Sparg, Small Business Minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, Deputy Minister in the Presidency Thembi Siweya and former Free State economic development MEC Mxolisi Dukwana.
Organisations such as Cosatu and the “revolutionary council” - a loose coalition of North West ANC members - had received between R300000 and R800000 for their work in helping Ramaphosa win the presidency.
Mahumapelo said the NEC needed to be “merciless” against those who had used money to divide the organisation and buy members and structures.
“If they are donors and they are members of the ANC they must be called to the ANC and they must explain as to whether, when they were approached, they were approached in the context
of them donating to the ANC campaigns or if they were approached to donate to individuals’ campaigns for this
and that. And the ANC, having received and confirmed that information, can then decide what course of action
to take going forward,” Mahumapelo said.
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“In the event they are not ANC members, they are just counter-revolutionaries. It means there was collusion between ANC members and non-ANC members, brought together by capital to destabilise the ANC and to change the direction the ANC is taking on how we want to continue the revolution. So, the NEC will have to take a dim view on this particular matter.”
Yesterday, ANC spokesperson Pule Mabe said since the governing party had no policy before its 2017 elective conference at Nasrec to regulate donations towards internal leadership contests, they did not believe CR17 donors breached the party’s constitution.
“The ANC did not have a clear framework on how individual members can operationalise their own campaigns and in our own statements we had said that in the interest of transparency it was important that going forward, the ANC through its own officials will have to begin initiating a process that provides a framework or guideline on how internal party campaigning will have to be conducted where issues of fund-raising are concerned. But such are not seen or perceived in a manner that could suggest that one, they erode the constitution of the ANC and, two, they compromise the integrity of own processes.”
Accusing Luthuli House of double standards, Mahumapelo claimed that people like him would have been expelled from the ANC had they been found to have used money to buy votes or pay people to destabilise the party and government.
“So, we can’t have a law for another faction of the ANC and another law for another faction. There must be one law for one ANC because the ANC is one,” he said.
Insisting that he would have stepped aside had he been requested by the ANC leadership after Nasrec, Mahumapelo said instead his opponents chose to destabilise the North West.
“If comrades felt that some people had to leave their positions, like I had to, there was no difficulty in them approaching me and saying, ‘We don’t think in this era, or the organisation after Nasrec, you should still be holding those positions. We know you were elected democratically. Can you give us space?’ Show me reasons and so on, maybe we can discuss it in the structures. I am not a difficult person.”
He called on the NEC to bring members of the “revolutionary council” to book for destroying and torching public property during its chaotic marches against him last year.
“They must call forward those who are accused, in our case the so-called revolutionary council, which is proving to have received money, so they must disclose the sources in their own mouths, they must confirm them, the must also detail to the organisation why they chose to use unconventional, unconstitutional methods to achieve this,” he said.
He added that most of the culprits would be easy to find because they were now working in the office of North West Premier Professor Job Mokgoro.
This included former “revolutionary council” spokesperson Thato wa Mogogodi, who is one of Mokgoro’s advisers.
Yesterday, Mokgoro’s spokesperson Vuyisile Ngesi denied that Wa Mogogodi and other “revolutionary council” members had been hired by Mokgoro as a reward for their roles in toppling Mahumapelo.
“Any person who has been appointed in the premier’s office were appointed because they are members of the governing party and because of their strengths and capabilities. They have been placed there to assist the premier in discharging his duties. We dissociate ourselves from the view that has been expressed by Mahumapelo,” Ngezi said.
Themba Gwabeni, one of the leaders of the “revolutionary council”, confirmed that they formed the organisation on December 27 in Mahikeng to topple Mahumapelo, but insisted it was due to his alleged corruption.
Despite the CR17 bank accounts showing that the “council” was paid R300 000, Gwabeni said they were not aware of such funds because the organisation had no bank account.
“CR was already elected at the December conference and therefore we only used the Nasrec resolutions. The resolution to fight corruption and maladministration and hence the people came together. We are equally surprised to see funds of R300 000 in the name of the revolutionary council. If you are to have access to the bank details regarding who took the money, that information should back what I’m saying,” he said.