On Saturday, while speaking at an ANC event in the Free State, ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula made the claim (as reported by News24) that: “There was a lot of political inference in this area, which is why we had a split in this municipality. [Ace] Magashule ruined everything. He ruined everything and the ANC in the Free State, even the ANC. He taught people that working for the ANC is working for yourself and not the people. He taught them to steal money for themselves.”

Mbalula went on to claim that things have changed, so that: “If you steal, we will back you [to] step aside. Ask Magashule. We dealt with him, with [the] asbestos [scandal].”

This was a powerful comment from Mbalula and perhaps the strongest condemnation the former secretary-general has yet suffered from the party he was expelled from.

Of course, Mbalula and Magashule have a long history of not seeing eye to eye.

True, Mbalula did support then president Jacob Zuma in 2007 and the years afterwards, along with Magashule.

But, in 2017, he tweeted that he opposed Magashule being elected to the position of ANC secretary-general, saying, “Ace Magashule is a definite no no no, the man will finish what is remaining of our movement. He will kill it.”  

ANC Succession: Mbalula tweets slam Magashule

He confirmed that his account had not been hacked.

In 2019, this reporter interviewed Magashule at the election results centre about his claims that Cyril Ramaphosa had not been a big factor in the ANC’s victory that year. Strangely, Mbalula felt compelled to come and watch the interview. It appeared that he (and the current justice minister, Ronald Lamola) had come to ensure Magashule said what he was supposed to say. The impression certainly was that they were acting as Ramaphosa’s enforcers.

All of that said, it appears that Mbalula’s comments were an attempt to hold only Magashule responsible for scandals involving the ANC in the Free State and thus absolve the party from blame mere months before the general election.

Magashule was only able to operate as he did, in Mbalula’s words to “ruin everything”, because of the position of power he had in the ANC.

Back in 2009, Mbalula was a member of the ANC National Executive Committee (NEC) that decided Magashule should be the premier of the Free State. He remained a member of the NEC in the years afterwards, during the State Capture era.

Role in State Capture

During this time, as was confirmed at the Zondo Commission hearings, the Guptas were the first to inform Mbalula, in 2010, that he would be moved to the sports ministry. But for years he did not make this knowledge public.

And Mbalula can hardly claim not to have played any kind of role in State Capture.

The Public Protector found that he had received a benefit of R680,000 from a sporting goods company while he was the sports minister.

It has also been claimed, under oath, that Mbalula was the first person to suggest the SAPS spend R45-million on a “grabber” device to intercept phone conversations during the 2018 ANC Nasrec Conference.

R45m ‘Nasrec grabber’ was Fikile Mbalula’s idea, claims National Police Commissioner Khehla Sitole in court papers

Mbalula and many others were also part of the ANC that defended Zuma and by definition allowed the State Capture era to continue way past the point where it was obvious how devastating it would be for South Africa.

It should also be remembered that while the full extent of Magashule’s alleged corruption was not in the public domain in 2017 (this was before the publication of Pieter-Louis Myburgh’s book Gangster State and Mxolisi Dukwana’s testimony at the Zondo Commission), 2,360 delegates at Nasrec still voted to elect him secretary-general of the ANC. This was despite well publicised claims about him going back many years. 

His election was the choice of thousands of ANC delegates and branches.

Just based on that little detail, Mbalula and others are obviously wrong to blame the ANC’s problems in the Free State solely on Magashule. The record shows it was not him alone.

It should also be remembered that certain people against whom findings were made by the Zondo Commission still occupy important positions in the ANC and the government.

Gwede Mantashe was reelected as chair of the ANC in December and is also the minister of mineral resources and energy. This is despite a Zondo Commission finding that he received gratifications from Bosasa (he has filed legal papers against this finding).

David Mahlobo, found by the commission to have been involved in moving around large amounts of cash which are unaccounted for when he was minister of state security, is often on television screens in his role as deputy minister of water affairs and sanitation. He still publicly disputes the finding, but has not, as far as is known, challenged it in court.

There are way too many other similar cases and examples.

Meanwhile, Chief Justice Raymond Zondo has had to complain in public that the State Attorney had not made proper arrangements to defend his findings in court.

If he had not made his own arrangements, those challenging his findings would have been able to win their cases without the government providing any legal representation to defend the findings (Justice Minister Ronald Lamola has indicated he is now trying to deal with the matter).

In other words, the government instituted the Zondo Commission and accepted its findings, but then failed to defend those findings. 

At the same time, Mbalula may be making these claims about Magashule for other reasons.

Magashule has formed a new political party, the African Congress for Transformation, with the aim of contesting next year’s elections.

And it was reported at the weekend that the “Weekend Special” finance minister, Des van Rooyen, was appointed to the board of the Gauteng Enterprise Propeller to stop him from working with Magashule.

In other words, some in the ANC have appointed him to a position where he will be paid with government money not to collaborate with Magashule.

Do we need to spell out that this is immoral?

It is also irrational, in that there is no evidence that Magashule, or any of those around him, will win much support in next year’s elections.

But there is also another message here.

While the ANC has failed to publicly condemn those in the party who were involved in State Capture, Mbalula is happy to condemn the one person who was involved in that project but has now left the party.

It appears that if you were involved in State Capture and stay in the ANC, no one inside the party will condemn you. The ANC  always looks after its own — it was like that from the Tony Yengeni days.

Despite the findings of the Zondo Commission and all of the promises of “renewal”, there is still no evidence that the ANC is ever going to deal with the people who enabled and participated in what its own leader called the “nine wasted years”. One has to wonder, how many more years will have to be wasted. DM