Johannesburg – The criminal charges against ANC secretary general Ace Magashule will loom large tomorrow when the party’s top brass meets for the first time this year.
The governing party’s national executive committee – the organisation’s highest decision-making body between elective conferences – would hold a virtual meeting to consider and discuss the statement to be delivered by President Cyril Ramaphosa this Friday, which is the 109th anniversary of the party.
In a statement, the party said the statement was also going to detail the party’s plan to curb the spread of Covid-19.
“African National Congress (ANC) national executive committee (NEC) will tomorrow, 06 January 2021, hold a special virtual sitting to discuss and consider the Jan 8 statement including the theme for the year ahead,” the statement reads.
However, Magashule’s 21 counts of fraud, corruption and money laundering charges would loom large as the NEC meets.
A powerful faction aligned to Ramaphosa wants Magashule to be forced to step aside in line with the party’s 2017 conference resolutions on fighting corruption.
Last month, Magashule survived an attempt to put him on ice when the party agreed that its top six leaders had to finalise the guidelines on the circumstances under which a leader should step aside.
Magashule was arrested in connection with the Free State R255 million Asbestos audit project, which happened at the time he was premier in that province.
He was released on a R200 000 bail.
Meanwhile, Cabinet spokesperson Phumla Williams confirmed that the National Coronavirus Command Council, led by Ramaphosa, would meet at 9am tomorrow.
This came as speculation was rife that the government could consider additional measures to stop the spread of the virus, as numbers of daily infections continued to increase rapidly.
The country was grappling to deal with the second wave of the global pandemic, which Ramaphosa warned could be more devastating than the first wave.
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