The national executive committee’s lekgotla was held from last Thursday. It was made clear to state president Jacob Zuma that he needs to resign from or be recalled by the organisation. A quick move saw the meeting take a swoop on Eskom by dissolving its board of directors and immediately replacing it with a new one led by businessman Jabu Mabuza.
In the same breath, the new board was ordered to immediately remove all Eskom executives involved in any acts of corruption. It also has to appoint a permanent CEO and CFO within three months.
On the sides there were other moves as the National Prosecuting Authority announced its intention to cease the Gupta-owned Erina Farm in Vrede where a massive dairy farm fraudulently obtained by the family is in operation. It emerged that poor families from Vrede were duped out of their promised ownership of the said farm. Their identity documents were used to siphon funds from government coffers under the guise that a community cooperative was being funded.
The poor farmers have made scathing revelations on how they watched from the sides as the Gupta family operated the dairy farm while they awaited answers from the authorities in the Free State.
It is frightening to think if the Vrede incident has emerged in this manner, how many such perpetrated in the same fraudulent manner exist throughout the country.
When the issue of state capture was first raised, it was highly criticised by the Zuma government, yet it knew all along what rot lay under it.
This is a welcome note on Ramaphosa’s collective leadership to fight corruption head-on. I’m afraid that all those implicated, including within his leadership, will face the full might of the law.
In the Vrede dairy-farm incident, are we likely to see the axe fall on new Secretary General, Ace Magashule of the
Free State whose province is implicated? That would be interesting because there are indications already that should there be any complicity in the incident by Magashule, a special general council of the ANC will be held specifically to elect a Secretary General.
Time will tell.
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