ANALYSIS
With Friends Like These: Ace Magashule and the coalition of the wounded defending Jacob Zuma
ANC Secretary-General Ace Magashule appeared to lash out at journalists who doorstepped him on Wednesday morning to ask him his views on ex-president Jacob Zuma’s defiance of the Zondo Commission. Magashule requested the media to lay off JZ and not ‘worry too much about the Constitution’.
This is a week in which former president Jacob Zuma has been compared both to Pan-Africanist Congress founder Robert Sobukwe and apartheid-era president PW Botha. In both cases, the analogies were drawn by Zuma’s supporters, and stemmed from Zuma’s ongoing refusal to cooperate with the Zondo Commission.
“Just like the generation of Robert Sobukwe that defied apartheid unjust laws imposed on them, former President Zuma has taken it upon himself to defy all unjust court rulings imposed on him,” trumpeted #FeesMustFall activist Bonginkosi Khanyile on Twitter.
“He has taken the most radical and militant stance exactly like Sobukwe during his times.”
Exactly like Sobukwe.
Khanyile, who is under house arrest in Durban as a result of public violence convictions sustained during student protests in 2016, also bragged that JZ would be paying him a personal visit on Wednesday.
It is hard to see why Zuma would bother, particularly in these days of plague and pestilence, and especially since he claimed in his most recent public statement to have been receiving an “overwhelming groundswell of messages of support” – but perhaps the former president is deeply and primarily moved by ingratiating tweets from marginal protest figures.
Or perhaps the visit would be more transactional in nature. As an ANC veteran told me this week: “There is still money around Zuma.”
How else to explain the undying loyalty to JZ of figures like Carl Niehaus, a man who literally sold off his own parents’ funerals to make a quick buck?
The revelations spewing out of the Zondo Commission last week give some idea of where that money has come from in the past, with the State Security Agency used as a piggy-bank to fortify Zuma’s crumbling fiefdom. Little wonder that the former president has declared himself positively allergic to setting foot before that inquiry, in a quite exhausting seven-page statement in which he on several occasions refers to himself in the third person.
“The Commission into Allegations of State Capture [sic] can expect no further cooperation from me in any of their processes going forward,” declared Zuma, exactly like a young Robert Sobukwe.
“I do not fear being arrested. I do not fear being convicted nor do I fear being incarcerated,” continued Zuma, which seems a very psychologically healthy approach to his almost certain future.
It was this trifling matter on which journalists wished to hear ANC Secretary-General Ace Magashule’s views on Wednesday, prompting his evident displeasure.
Asked if Zuma would be suspended from the ANC for defying judicial process, Magashule replied: “Why should we suspend a person who believes in what he believes in? Why should we call him into order when he’s done nothing wrong?”
It was clearly not a huge leap of imaginative empathy for Magashule to take this stance on Zuma’s behalf, since he is in something of a rickety little boat himself when it comes to his standing within the ANC and pending criminal charges.
The question, “Why should we suspend a person who believes in what he believes in?” is particularly telling, since it suggests JZ is at risk of having his party membership snatched away for leaving out money for the Tooth Fairy or something. In reality, and it is truly devastating that this should need to be spelt out, but here it is: one cannot choose not to believe in laws.
Or rather, one can, but one should not then be standing open-mouthed with confusion when the very real police come to take one to the very real court.
Magashule has some form in this department: recall how he ran around last year telling everyone who would listen, including the ANC’s Top Six, that he was to be arrested for “failing to execute oversight” while Free State premier – which brings to mind a sheepish parliamentarian caught trawling TikTok during a committee meeting.
How peculiar, then, when it emerged in court that Magashule was to face 21 charges of corruption and fraud, theft and money laundering. All of which sounds a teeny bit more serious than his imaginary oversight offence.
But back to Magashule defending Zuma this week, in the course of which he said the following:
“We will one day talk about what is happening in South Africa. There are many wrong things which are happening in this country today. We can go to the days of the TRC [Truth and Reconciliation Commission], where Botha [apartheid-era president PW Botha] refused to go to the TRC and nobody said anything.”
BOOM! Except that didn’t sound quite right. I took a quick foray back into the mists of 1998, and found this report from August 22:
“The Truth and Reconciliation Commission drew first blood yesterday in its political battle against the former South African president, Mr P.W. Botha. The octogenarian Afrikaner leader was found guilty of contempt for refusing to heed subpoenas to appear before it.”
Botha was fined R10,000 or a year’s imprisonment, the report continues, and sentenced to a further 12 months’ imprisonment, suspended for five years, for ignoring TRC summonses.
“On the penultimate day of the trial, his lawyers presented Mr Botha’s case for refusing to heed subpoenas.
“‘The commission was clearly prejudiced against the accused,’ his lawyer told the court.”
Parallels-wise, this is sledgehammer stuff. Comparisons between apartheid and democratic governance are odious, but we have Magashule to blame for leading us down this grim path.
The figures coalescing around Zuma now have several obvious things in common. They have either tangled with the criminal justice system in the past and come off worst (Khanyile), or can expect this fate for themselves in the not too distant future (Magashule). Alternatively, they have been sucking from the Zuma teat (I apologise) for so long that there simply are no further options for them (Niehaus).
In all cases, these are people rapidly running out of road. And the coalition of the wounded gathered around Zuma provides a context in which the phrase “guilty by association”, normally used to describe situations of injustice, may quite literally be true. DM
Ed Note: Later on Wednesday, this exchange happened on Twitter between Jacob “Robert Sobukwe’ Zuma and Julius “#PayBackTheMoney” Malema. The Zuma avoiding court&Zondo saga will obviously not be ending any time soon:
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Twitter exchange: stage whispers and theatre theatrics and so, as Davis observes, we suck at the teat (I apologise (also for the mixed metaphor)).
Sad part is, most the rest of us suck at the hind teat, especially those poor in our society who are so desperately in need of milk!
Hmmm. Julius and Jacob? Birds of a feather? Seem to recall Julius was one of the first to call JZ a criminal?
Whatever happened to “Pay back the money?” Birds of a feather……
That was before people started calling on him to pay back the VBS money…
Why journalists even ask this question to Magashule, knowing what the answer will be, goes beyond me
Why so? It’s a good question and needs to be asked especially if you know what the answer is going to be. Lawyers do it all the time in court.
Exactly!
The saying among lawyers is that one must never ask a question that you do not know the answer to.
It’s important to have such answers on record.
Malema telling Zuma that getting together for a cup of tea is, ” in the best interest of our country”, would be hysterical if it wasn’t so tragic for SA.
Nothing that either of these 2 corrupt rogues have ever done has ever been in the best interests of our country.
I wonder whether Ubaba could enlighten us what he’s president of?
Indeed.
The road may be fast running out but they behave as if they could run the comrades. It is time there was some bite to the threats of arrest and imprisonment.
Both these super-crooks should be facing impeachment by their party. Ohh sorry, I forgot. No one left with backbone.
Yawn, Yawn.
Says Ace Mangashule “We will one day talk about what is happening in South Africa. There are many wrong things which are happening in this country today.”
Indeed here the people agree with you.
And one very wrong thing happening is your defiance of the LAW, with your hand in the cash till! How naïve do you think your comrades are? You deserve every cell of punishment that is about to befall your arrogant-above-the-law attitude to this country’s. You and JZ can share notes in a dark prison cell, on how hard you fell, when you realised NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW.
Absolutely. JZ has said similar things. If they know of crimes or wrong doing why don’t they go to the police and lay a charge? Why hang these “threats” over us?
What a vile, odious, diabolical and devious individual this Magashule is, as are all his ilk. Total disrespect for the Constitution, the country, the law and any form of decency. These degenerates have no morals, ethics, integrity – just rotten to the core, Godless, evil, thieving scumbags. In their twisted and wayward minds, stealing taxpayers money and from the government/country they are supposed to serve is justified, with no consequences and total impunity, as it is WMC money. The authorities (NPA, Hawks, AFU, SIU etc.) need to stand firm and act without fear or favour. “Leave him alone” (Zuma) – well if that is the case, then what about the average Joe Citizen who is found guilty of fraud/theft and then jailed?? If the authorities don’t act now and exorcise these demons (pun intended) from our midst, then this country is truly lost. It will become a failed state like Zimbabwe, Venezuela, Cuba etc. We are already on the way!
With friends like these, who needs enemies? I have faith in the saying there is no falling out, like that among thieves and as they all have their own agendas, a falling out surely is inevitable?
Malema – another monstrous, racist, hypocrite and degenerate! This is the man who would kill for Zuma, who was integral in foisting the obnoxious zuma on the nation with all its dire consequences, who was so vociferous in “pay back the money” wanting to cosy up (also feeling the heat) as if these two psychopaths have anything to contribute to the national interest. What a sick joke!!
Kidi Amin, Ace and shower head. All class these three 🤣
Keep Calm. Keep on paying those taxes. They are being well spent.
This is it. The outcome of this will determine South Africa’s future. Will we treat all equal before the law or will demagogues run free? Everything hinges on this moment – the integrity of the state, of our institutions, and of the law, not to mention the will of the people. South Africa has been on its knees for a long time now. The outcome of the Zuma cabal’s defiance will finally reveal if we’re going to stand up or fall over. It’s absolutely clear now that he was attempting a soft coup, seizing institutions and state funds to serve his interests, not the people and country’s. If Zuma and co don’t meet the might of the country, they will inadvertently set the rules for what comes next. We will degrade into a nation of weak opportunists and disenfranchised masses. It will only become worse from there. We still have a chance, but only one. This is it.
These antics would actually be funny if the situation wasn’t so sad and mind-numbing. Are we living in a alternate reality…? Are they?!
With reference to the authors’ apology for using the term ‘teat’ … should be seen in the context of what is happening across the pond, where they call it ‘kissing the ring’ ! a la McCarthy. Delicious stuff …. sometimes even intoxicating without alcohol.
Birds of a feather. It’s no surprise that Zuma is gathering those that have something to lose around him, whether that is Malema, or Ace. Zuma is undoubtedly the biggest domino – if he falls, they all will. They know there is a fight coming and they’re making their last political stand.
Zuma and Malema getting together to discuss a joint initiative… zumzum taking his supporters to the EFF?
I’ll wager my box of English Breakfast they’re going to read the tea leaves. How else do old comrades decide what’s in the best interests of the country?
What kind of organisation has Magashule on its Board (Top 6) and invites Zuma to Board (lekgotla) meetings?