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ANC Secretary General Ace Magashule. (Photo by Gallo Images / Sowetan / Alaister Russell)
- ANC Secretary General Ace Magashule has briefed the media on the long-awaited NEC meeting.
- He has remained silent on whether he was the main agenda of the meeting.
- Magashule faces challenges after he was arrested on corruption-related charges, and his detractors in the ANC called on him to step aside.
ANC Secretary General Ace Magashule has said nothing about whether he was the main agenda at the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting, describing it as fruitful and unifying.
Magashule held a virtual media briefing on the doorstep Monday afternoon on the ongoing meeting that began Sunday evening.
He did not accept any questions from the media, only saying that he would brief the media more extensively when the three-day meeting concludes.
He said that President Cyril Ramaphosa had delivered a political overview that was informative, “giving us direction and uniting the ANC.”
READ | You’re invited! Behind the scenes of 2020 with News24
He added that former Presidents Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma are attending the meeting as ex officio members.
So far, he said, the NEC, the party’s highest inter-conference decision-making body, dealt with issues related to the economy, unemployment, its relationship with its alliance partners, and local general elections to be held next. year.
Magashule said:
The meeting is quite frank, we are all discussing [sic] Whatever challenges the movement has faced from Nasrec and beyond and we are happy that the meeting is a pretty good meeting of the ANC closing the year with the fact that the ANC has to come together. We focus on conference resolutions and the fact that conference resolutions must be enforced. We are happy that the organization is one.
Magashule, who faces 21 counts of corruption, money laundering and fraud, did not mention whether the conviction charges against him had been the subject of discussions on the second day of the meeting.
News24 reported that there were half a dozen legal opinions on the implications of the party’s NEC’s August resolution – that those who are charged with a crime should step aside. Legal opinions were contradictory and ranged from unconstitutional; to a legal opinion that Magashule should be forced by the NEC to step aside.
The embattled ANC secretary general, Ace Magashule, should only step down from office if all other leaders implicated in wrongdoing, including President Cyril Ramaphosa, do the same. | @City_Press https://t.co/QbapI4KRId
– News24 (@ News24) December 6, 2020
It became a manifest bone of contention when party leaders defied the resolution and Magashule openly declared after his first court appearance that only branches of the ANC could remove him.
READ MORE | ANC leaders will consider 4 options for members accused of corruption
The ANC’s NEC report, which was meant to process the litany of legal opinions, would also be released on Monday. NEC sources told News24 on Sunday that the issue divided the two factions of the ANC, those loyal to Ramaphosa and leaders loyal to Magashule.
Magashule supporters are understood to want the resolution removed, using two legal opinions to bolster their argument that it is unconstitutional. They are also willing to argue that if Magashule had to step aside, Ramaphosa should also do so because he was implicated in a Public Protector report related to the CR17 campaign. That report is currently under review in the Constitutional Court.
OPINION | The ANC: a case of chronic lack of consciousness
However, the president’s supporters insist that legal opinions should be ignored. They argue that the “step aside” resolution was a political matter.
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