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Ace Magashule, Secretary General of the ANC. (Photo: Gallo Images / Alon Skuy)
The wheels of justice may turn slowly, but at least they are turning. Before Ace Magashule’s court appearance, Scorpio’s Pieter-Louis Myburgh, in a Daily Maverick webinar, detailed the case against the ANC secretary general and explained how authorities are finally beginning to act on high-profile cases. .
When the top six ANC officials met to consider the arrest warrant issued for the Ace Magashule party secretary general this week, Pieter-Louis Myburgh did a quick search of the other five members.
ANC Vice President David Mabuza faces widespread accusations while he was prime minister of Mpumalanga; President Gwede Mantashe has been caught up in the Bosasa scandal; Deputy Secretary General Jessie Duarte has been linked to the Guptas; Treasurer Paul Mashatile never seems to be able to shake off rumors about the “Alex Mafia”, and the nature of his current position could expose him to various charges.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has not been implicated in corruption allegations, but his critics continue to raise questions about his campaign finances for the party’s 2017 Nasrec conference.
Despite the party’s own resolutions, officials No Ask Magashule to step aside as he faces corruption charges related to the Free State’s asbestos audit contract of 255 million rand.
“I can only imagine that they are well aware that if they pull the trigger on that resolution of theirs to force people involved in corruption to resign, it will have massive ramifications for the party because it is a party that the whole world hosts. so many people who are directly implicated in corruption and other forms of embezzlement, ”Myburgh said in a Daily maverick webinar on Thursday.
Myburgh, investigative journalist from Daily maverick’s Scorpio, has tenaciously delved into the allegations against Magashule and her 2019 book. Gangster State: Unraveling Ace Magashule’s Capture Net exposed the role of the secretary general in the asbestos audit scam.
Magashule is due to surrender to the police and appear in Bloemfontein Magistrates Court on Friday on corruption charges.
He will be the seventh person arrested in the case. Entrepreneur Edwin sodi, whose company Blackhead Consulting was key to the deal, along with the late Igo Mpambani’s Diamond Hill Trading 71, already showed up in court along with other businessmen and government officials.
“It was certainly an effort to extract a great deal of money from the province’s coffers with very little regard for the provision of royal service,” Myburgh said.
He described how the deal was orchestrated so that its beneficiaries would receive a predetermined payment of R255 million. The Sodi and Mpambani companies made more than 200 million rand in profits, while some of the funds were channeled to subcontractors. In reality, only about R7 million was spent conducting asbestos audits on Free State homes.
Magashule, prime minister at the time, was reportedly close to financial affairs. His PA, Moroadi Cholota, instructed Mpambani to make payments to third parties, allegedly following instructions from Magashule.
While we wait for the charge sheet, the expert in constitutional law, Professor Pierre de Vos, has outlined the challenges that the National Prosecutor’s Office (NPA) may have to overcome to achieve a conviction, including the possible lack of witnesses.
Myburgh, who tracked how the money flowed to Sodi and Mpambani and then to Magashule’s interests in the ANC, said there is enough evidence to convict the ANC secretary general.
“With the asbestos case, there is too much set in stone, a kind of black and white documented evidence inside the cloud and it can’t be burned.”
He pointed out that even if the NPA cannot prove that Magashule personally benefited financially, the State only has to show that it accepted the gratuity for the benefit of another person or party, such as the ANC or its comrades who were allegedly financed from the proceeds of the deal. to visit Cuba.
“You don’t always have to accept a commission or a bribe for someone to be arrested or charged in connection with these kinds of deals,” Myburgh said.
Magashule’s allies have already begun to mount a policy defending and his appearance at the Bloemfontein Magistrates Court could be a litmus test of his support within the ANC.
Myburgh recalled how Magashule supporters disrupted his book launch in Sandton City in April 2019. In his view, the protest was carefully orchestrated and the protesters did not seem genuine in their support for the secretary general.
“I think it is going to be very difficult for him to get broad universal support, not only in the party, but also obviously in all sectors of society in South Africa. I just don’t see that kind of support, for example, not the kind of support that Jacob Zuma initially enjoyed around the gun deal prosecution. “
“I’ve always viewed a lot of their support as carefully crafted,” Myburgh said.
The Hawks have made a series of high-profile arrests in the second half of 2020 and Myburgh believes prosecutors are finally beginning to act without fear or favor after years of inaction.
“I just no longer have the feeling that there is special treatment in that regard. I think the NPA will charge people who for many, many years have been prominently involved in corruption scandals, regardless of who they are, and I think that is really going to start to happen. “
He suggested that the NPA is aware of its image problem and is probably looking closely at high-profile cases like the Vrede dairy project and others involving Gupta, VBS and Steinhoff. Authorities should also investigate the books of the ANC and other political parties, he said.
“We just have too much information or disclosures that point to the ANC being formally a bribery operation and that would have happened to the detriment of all of us,” he said.
“If the ruling party has turned into a criminal syndicate, because these are all crimes, it’s money laundering, it’s corruption, then the Hawks, hopefully, surely, and the NPA should already be sitting down and examining that part.”
Several members of the audience at the webinar were skeptical about whether Magashule and other corruption defendants will eventually be brought into the book. Myburgh said he was encouraged by the recent actions by authorities, but warned that the case against Magashule could take years.
“Again, it’s the old adage that the wheels of justice turn slowly sometimes, but they do turn and justice is still being served, I think.
“It is still a very positive development because, once again, regardless of how long the case takes, finally at least that type of person has been apprehended and charged.” DM
Gangster statusby Pieter-Louis Myburgh is available for purchase here.
