AFRICAN MIRROR REPORTER
ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule is gunning for his boss ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Magashule has turned to the courts for his political survival but passages of his 128 page affidavit reveal that he has Ramaphosa in his sights.
After the ANC’s national executive committee (NEC) confirmed his suspension and ordered him to apologise, Magashule turned to the court to have the decision overturned and has used the occasion to justify his right to suspend Ramaphosa. He has, infact, asked the court to find that his suspension of Ramaphosa was lawful and constitutional.
Magashule has revealed, in his court papers, that after the ANC National Working Committee (NWC) decided that the decision of the NEC – that those charged should step aside – should be implemented, he began to write suspension letters to those implicated. And the first letter he wrote was to Ramaphosa.
“On that day, I indeed wrote the first letter of the suspension to the President of the ANC, who was covered by the step-aside regime, as originally envisaged by the national conference, in that he was alleged to be involved in the “use of money to influence conference outcomes”,” he said.
Magashule alleged that once the ANC top six officials were aware of his letter “suspending” Ramaphosa, they hurried crafted one to temporarily remove him from his post.
He questioned why the “suspension” of Ramaphosa was not given any effect, not discussed despite the fact that the ANC president had not challenged it.
He argued that the Ramaphosa “suspension” letter should have been properly tabled at the NEC meeting and the president should have recused himself from “deciding on the validity of his own suspension, apart from the right to be heard.”
“This did not happen,” he said. “The president should have also recused himself from being the person to make a public announcement about the alleged unlawfulness of his own suspension and my side of the story should have been heard.”
He said what happened at the NEC meeting that took a decision on his suspension would rival the conduct of the “worst dictatorships ever witnessed on this planet”.
Magashule laid bare the deep divisions within the majority party in South Africa and argued that the actions against him were illegal and politically-motivated.
Magashule said: “This is clear evidence of selective justice, according to who belongs to the dominant faction. The suspension letter of the president ought to have been declared valid unless properly and procedurally set aside because the conduct of the first respondent (Ramaphosa) falls squarely within the ambit of the real and original conference resolution more particularly in that he failed to give a satisfactory explanation to the Integrity Commission (of the ANC). The relevant Integrity Commission report, which will bear this out, is available to me but will only be included in the replying affidavit in the event of a denial. The decision was never appealed.”
He said Ramaphosa’s “suspension” should also be declared valid because the ANC president has publicly and under oath admitted that his “CR-17” campaign for the ANC presidency, had used a minimum of R300-million in order to secure his election at the ANC’s national conference in 2017. “In his case, therefore, one is not even only dealing with allegations but with an admission. The conference resolution specifically includes ‘those who use money to influence conference outcomes’,” he said.
In the papers, Magashule also sought to explain an inherent contradiction. He has asked the court to find that the provision used by the ANC to suspend him is both unlawful and unconstitutional but he has asked the court to find that his own suspension of Ramaphosa, in terms of the same provision, is valid.
He explained: “I must point out that although I felt duty bound to carry out the instructions of the NWC, I based my own belief that the entire step-aside regime was irregular and would not stand scrutiny if challenged. I did so reluctantly and only out of a sense of duty.”
Magashule said he would apologize if ordered to do so by the courts. “An apology issued by me before legal clarity is given by this honourable court would not be genuine or meaningful,” he said.
The ANC, Ramaphosa and Duarte are expected to file replying papers and the matter is expected to be heard in a few weeks.
