Johannesburg – ANC is preparing to haul its embattled secretary-general Ace Magashule before the party’s disciplinary committee for bringing the party into disrepute for his failed attempt to suspend party president Cyril Ramaphosa.
Ahead of the party’s national executive committee, which takes place next weekend, Sunday World understands that the meeting will consider, among others, recommendations that disciplinary charges be brought against Magashule for also violating the terms of his suspension and “provoking divisions” within the ANC.
According to party insiders, the decision will also depend on the outcome of Magashule’s urgent high court application, which seeks to overturn his suspension.
The meeting of the ANC NEC – which is the party’s highest decision-making body between its national conferences – has also been convened to discuss progress in the party’s selection process for candidates for local government elections, scheduled to take place on October 27.
The NEC meeting will take place just after a full bench of the Joburg High Court has heard Magashule’s urgent application to have his suspension and the ANC’s step-aside resolution set aside. The matter will be heard on Thursday and Friday.
But the NEC meeting is expected to be heated as emotions are likely to run high when the party’s national working committee (NWC) delivers a report on the possibility of charging Magashule for bringing the organisation into disrepute.
Magashule was suspended on May 5, following a special meeting of the organisation’s NEC.
In an unprecedented move, the former Free State premier later issued a letter in which he singlehandedly – and without consultation with the party’s other executives – sought to suspend Ramaphosa.
Against the conditions of his suspension, which among other things barred him from addressing ANC supporters, Magashule went ahead and addressed party supporters outside the Pietermaritzburg High Court where the criminal trial of former president Jacob Zuma was taking place.
He also failed to meet the party’s deadline of May 12 to apologise to the ANC for what the party said was his “unlawful” suspention of Ramaphosa The ANC NWC then instructed the party’s disciplinary committee’s national presenter to look at whether to level disciplinary charges against Magashule and Umkhonto We Sizwe Military Veterans Association spokesperson Carl Niehaus The presenter was also making a determination on whether to charge Magashule for suspending Ramaphosa and failing to apologise as instructed and also unilaterally uplifting the suspension of former ANC North West chairperson Supra Mahumapelo by the party’s North West interim task team.
An NWC member said Magashule was going to be charged for his waywardness.
“He must be charged for suspending the president. Ace also lifted the suspension of Supra. You can’t do that as an individual. He was supposed to bring the matter to the attention of the NWC,” the member said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The NWC must submit a report on why he hasn’t been charged or what steps are being taken to charge him. Sources within the party say the ultimate aim by the Ramaphosa faction is to expel him from the ANC.
The MKMVA, Magashule’s staunch supporters, were also on the firing line, following their defiance of a NWC decision last week to dissolve the organisation, along with the MK National Council (MKNC).
The two were expected to go to a unity conference to form a single organisation of former MK combatants as per the party’s 2017 conference resolution. But a meeting of the top six officials and the leadership of both the MKMVA and MKNC collapsed, following accusations by the association’s hierarchy that they were being targeted The MKMVA believes that its dissolution was part of Ramaphosa’s consolidation of power. An NEC member said Magashule’s bloc was going to be defeated in its attempts to keep the MKMVA alive.
“The MKMA has been disbanded. There is a pushback. But that pushback won’t go far,” the NEC member said.
“The anchor [of the Magashule faction] is SG (Magashule). The previous NEC meetings have shown that this RET faction is not in charge. The resolution on this matter is not in their favour and the balance of forces are not in their favour,” the member added.
The NEC was also going to discuss the guidelines on the selection of candidates for local elections after Ramaphosa announced that the country was going back to lockdown level 3.
Follow @SundayWorldZA on Twitter and @sundayworldza on Instagram, or like our Facebook Page, Sunday World, by clicking here for the latest breaking news in South Africa. To Subscribe to Sunday World, click here.
Sunday World
