Fightback? What fightback?
His public comments are seen as divisive, but the ANC secretary-general says if they are read in ‘context’ it is plain to see he is a loyal party member, writes Sibongakonke Shoba
● It was a desperate time for then eThekwini mayor Zandile Gumede, so she picked her last lifeline.
To her, Ace Magashule wasn’t just the ANC secretary-general, he was also a close ally and comrade who had every reason to use his position to save her from what some of her supporters had begun to call a “purge” of former president Jacob Zuma’s known followers.
Magashule was himself a known Zuma man, so it was natural for her to give him a call.
She had high expectations that Magashule would push back against the “purge” her supporters unconvincingly claim is driven by President Cyril Ramaphosa and his supporters.
Unconvincing because the provincial executive committee (PEC) that had unanimously decided to recall Gumede from office is dominated by personalities who considered themselves Zuma supporters in the run-up to the ANC’s 2017 national conference.
Gumede’s call may have bought her an extra week as mayor of the third-largest metro in the country, but it did not save her.
Mxolisi Kaunda was on Thursday elected as the new mayor of eThekwini — driving another nail into the coffin of the “fightback” project.
Had Gumede analysed the balance of forces within her own party since Nasrec, she would have realised that Magashule, who is widely seen as the face of the fightback campaign to weaken Ramaphosa, does not always get his way, including in the national executive committee (NEC) meetings.
If Magashule was as powerful as Gumede would have hoped, the NEC would not have taken a decision to investigate his alleged links to the formation of the African Transformation Movement.
With undisputed proof in the public domain that Ramaphosa’s campaign raised millions to win the Nasrec contest, the fightback brigade would already have unleashed ANC structures to condemn the president if Magashule was in charge.
Magashule appears irritated when asked about the perception that he is leading the fightback campaign against Ramaphosa.
“What is a fightback campaign? How do we fight back? What are we fighting back? I don’t understand that fightback campaign because we have never met and plotted anything. We have never met with Comrade Nkosazana [Dlamini-Zuma],” he says.
Of course, there is no evidence linking DlaminiZuma to the so-called fightback campaign. But Magashule did meet with other party leaders, including Zuma, behind Ramaphosa’s back at that infamous Maharani hotel meeting in Durban. At the time he denied that the meeting had anything to do with plotting to weaken Ramaphosa. However, the ANC did issue a statement saying Magashule would in future have to inform other ANC officials should he hold similar meetings.
During our meeting at the InterContinental hotel in Sandton, Magashule again denies plotting against Ramaphosa.
“We have clarified these things and we clarify every time, all the time. I don’t know how many times we’re going to [have to] clarify it.
“Maybe it’s leaders who have not been in the ANC who don’t understand how the ANC functions [who plot fightback campaigns].
“I had preference like any other comrades had preferences come conference. We have preferences. But the way the ANC operates and the way we understand it after every conference, once the leadership has been elected, we are a collective and we respect one another. We work with that collective … that’s how the ANC is supposed to operate.
“So there can’t be any fightback.”
The leaking of bank statements linked to the CR17 campaign is seen by Ramaphosa’s backers — who have also pointed fingers at public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane — as part of the fightback.
Although no ANC structure has come out to condemn the CR17 campaign, Ramaphosa has come under criticism from Zuma’s backers on social media.
But Magashule says this must not be blamed on a nonexistent fightback campaign.
“If there are real things coming out, people must not blame us for things which we don’t know.
“If people can say there is a fightback because we have done 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, I will say: ‘OK.’ But there isn’t such.
“I don’t know what is meant by a fightback campaign and who is fighting who … and how is the fight? Is it an intention to further divide us as the leadership of the ANC … as the top six, as me and the president?
“People have views, be it people on the ground and all that. They have views and they are entitled to their views. You can’t stop their views.”
I remind Magashule of a speech he delivered in KwaZulu-Natal in January last year to a crowd of mainly Zuma supporters where he told them to “work hard” to reclaim the “ANC we know”.
“It’s just a matter of five years,” he had told the cheering crowd.
I ask him if that had not fuelled tensions and kept the pre-Nasrec factions intact.
“I have explained this thing so many times … the context at which I put it I said: ‘If you are not happy with leadership, your time will come when you will do whatever … but for now the leadership has been elected. Wait. Be patient.’
“I don’t know why it keeps on coming because we have passed that stage.”
But the question is crucial because it was that speech that gave Ramaphosa’s detractors hope that they could stage a fightback if they worked hard, as per his encouragement.
When the KwaZulu-Natal PEC appeared to be embracing Ramaphosa as its leader, Zuma’s supporters worked tirelessly to undermine the unity project. Their actions were more pronounced in eThekwini and the Moses Mabhida region, which includes Pietermaritzburg.
In Moses Mabhida, Zuma allies refused to participate in the regional task team, which was created after the regional executive committee was dismantled, and kept away from the party’s official general elections campaign.
The plan, as revealed by insiders at the time, was to go to the national general council next year and convince branches that Ramaphosa was not willing to implement radical Nasrec resolutions, including the nationalisation of the Reserve Bank, expanding the bank’s mandate, and the amendment of the constitution to allow for the expropriation of land without compensation.
To show that Magashule had been reading from this script, in June this year he shocked even his comrades when he told reporters that the ANC NEC lekgotla had decided to expand the Bank’s mandate to include growth and employment.
It was later revealed that the original statement was tampered with to include this line after it was handed to his office.
The statement Magashule read out forced other leaders, including Ramaphosa, to come out and contradict the secretary-general.
He seems to have learnt from this mistake, and now treads carefully so as not to be seen to be defying Ramaphosa.
Unlike the Zuma crowd that complains that Ramaphosa is not implementing ANC resolutions, Magashule is now calling for patience from party members.
“You don’t implement resolutions of conference in a year and a half. Material conditions define implementation of some of these resolutions. You don’t just blindly go and [implement].”
But he said this did not mean that Nasrec resolutions would not be implemented.
He said there was commitment from ANC leaders, including Ramaphosa, that all Nasrec decisions would become reality, including the nationalisation of the Bank.
“The president said that resolution is a resolution of conference. It must be implemented. But as students of Lenin and Marx … that’s our orientation. Material conditions dictate the tempo and pace of our struggle moving forward.
“It’s not only when it comes to the Reserve Bank, it’s all matters affecting issues of the economy, issues of balance of forces internationally and domestically. Once you understand all those things, you then have to know that you’re a real leader of the ANC.”
The Zuma group has been saying that black business and black professionals have come under siege during Ramaphosa’s reign — that investigations in state-owned entities have resulted in the purging of black executives, and that changes at the Public Investment Corp are aimed at frustrating black businesses.
Magashule says the gains of the 1994 breakthrough are being reversed and that NGOs are being formed with the sole intention of undermining the ANC government and keeping black people out of the mainstream economy. However, he refuses to name them.
“We fought for this country for black people to be part of the mainstream economy. I want South Africans to understand that the gains of the revolution are being reversed because … you can see even the black middle class, black business … everybody is going down. It’s tough times.
“That’s why people need to stand up. Why are black companies going down? Why are black people keeping quiet?”
Magashule is an old party hack who started serving in the ANC NEC in Nelson Mandela’s time as an ex officio member, having occupied the position of ANC Free State chairperson for a record 23 years.
However, he was overlooked for the position of premier of the province for all those years until Zuma took office in 2009.
It was during this period that he consolidated his power in the province. His detractors claim his influence went beyond party and state. It was all just urban legend until journalist Pieter-Louis Myburgh published his book, Gangster State: Unravelling Ace Magashule’s Web of Capture. Myburgh details how Magashule had a firm grip on all government contracts and how he allegedly distributed patronage to his allies, friends and family. The book also explains Magashule’s relationship with the Guptas and how he introduced Free State politicians to his alleged capturers.
These claims have been backed up by former Free State transport MEC Mxolisi Dukwana, who told the Zondo commission of inquiry into state capture of all the alleged rot that set in under Magashule.
But Magashule says Myburgh’s book belongs in the fiction section.
“I’ll challenge all these things because they are all fabrications. It is fabrication to taint our image, our credibility, and as you do so in a way you taint the credibility of the ANC. That’s why I say I’m not worried about such things.”
What about Dukwana’s testimony?
“It’s a repeat of what is actually in the book … I have never received money from anybody. There are people who will actually come and testify … because there are a lot of people who are being blamed for things that they actually have not done. I can’t talk on their behalf. I don’t have anything from them. But I see people being attacked. Innocent people [are] being accused. But the truth will always prevail.”
But Magashule is yet to decide whether to rebuff the claims against him before Zondo.
“Times will tell. Times will tell,” he says.