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ANC Secretary General Ace Magashule. (Archive, News 24)
- Members of the ANC Free State are calling for Ace Magashule to step aside.
- Party members who camped in front of Luthuli House said he had been involved in irregularities at the Estina dairy farm and asbestos projects.
- This after Magashule told the media earlier this month that he was advised that he would soon be arrested.
“We ask that our secretary general, Ace Magashule, resign.”
These were the words of a group of members of the ANC Free State who gathered at Luthuli House, the party’s headquarters, to demand that “corrupt elements” be expelled.
Party members, who said they were affected by the besieged Estina dairy farm and asbestos projects, were calling on the top six to root out the party’s corrupt leaders, especially Magashule.
As they waited for senior ANC officials to deliver their memo, they chanted “Limene mene makahambe” (You are a liar, you must go).
READ | Extent of Estina and Gupta Links Revealed in New State Capture Commission Filing
Speaking in front of Luthuli House on Monday, one of the organizers, Polediso Motsoeneng, said that those who faced corruption and those who had allegedly done wrong should step aside as party officials.
He added that party members were not happy with the recent arrests of people accused of corruption in the asbestos project because it was only the “small fish.”
“We want the brain here at Luthuli House,” Motsoeneng said.
Another party member said Magashule should give an account of his role as an overseer while he was prime minister of the province.
“We came here with the beneficiaries of the asbestos project that the former prime minister is saying, with every claim that has been made against him regarding the asbestos issues, ‘Can he be held accountable?'”
“The leadership must act on its decision that all those who have been accused of corruption and crimes should step aside. I want to say emphatically that the SG of the ANC, given all the accusations against him, should step aside. “.
Another party leader and member of the ANC youth league, Lonwabo Dyi, said he was not satisfied that the national executive committee (NEC) was implementing its decision to have members implicated in wrongdoing stand aside.
“Magashule has mastered the art of patronage to deal with individuals,” he said, adding that his supporters in the NEC and in the Free State were attempting to co-opt the body under the guise of radical economic transformation.
Party members said they also supported the state capture Zondo commission, whose legitimacy has been questioned by former President Jacob Zuma.
Zuma has asked the chairman of the commission, Supreme Court Vice President Raymond Zondo, to recuse himself, saying he appeared to harbor personal revenge against him.
ANC spokesman Pule Mabe, who received a memo from the group, told reporters that he would bring the matter up to the national leadership for deliberation.
He added that ANC members should also use provincial structures to voice their concerns.
Two weeks ago, Magashule supporters marched to Luthuli House to protest what they said was a “politically motivated attack” against him and Zuma.
READ ALSO | Luxury sports cars, palatial mansions: inside the AFU bust in the accused asbestos case
The protest was organized shortly after reports emerged this week that an alleged arrest warrant against Magashule would be executed. The Hawks have denied the existence of such a court order.
Last month, Olly Mlamleli, a formidable ANC leader with political reach who spreads to Luthuli House due to her close relationship with Magashule, was the first political leader to be arrested by the Hawks.
She was one of seven people arrested on 60 charges related to corruption, fraud, money laundering and theft. Charges related to the besieged rand 255 million asbestos project.
She was released on bail of 100,000 rand.
Mlamleli, who presented himself as defendant number 12, faces charges of violating Section 4 (a) of the Organized Crime Prevention Act in relation to money laundering and failing to report corrupt transactions, extortion, forgery or issuance of a document falsified, the indictment of 39 pages. read.
Magashule, as well as Mlameli’s role in the asbestos project, was documented in the Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane report.
It encountered mismanagement, gross neglect of fiduciary duties, and misappropriation of public funds in the amount of 208.6 million rand during the surveillance of then-Prime Minister Magashule and MEC Mlamleli human settlements on the asbestos housing contract.
The contract was awarded to the Gauteng-based joint venture Blackhead Consulting and Diamond Hill Trading in 2015.
News24 previously reported that the farm, gifted to Estina in 2013 under a 99-year free lease from the Free State agriculture department, was one of the most scandal-ridden transactions between the controversial Guptas and a government entity.
