‘Ace is lying about instruction from NWC to suspend me’, says Ramaphosa

President Cyril Ramaphosa has shot back at ousted ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule’s high court bid to  uphold his attempted suspension of the party’s president, accusing Magashule of lying when he said he was acting at the behest of the national working committee (NWC).

In papers filed with the High Court in Johannesburg this week, Ramaphosa insists Magashule was not instructed to suspend him as president.

“[His] claim that he was acting pursuant to an NWC decision taken on 3 May was, to his own knowledge,  completely false. Both he and I were at the meeting,” Ramaphosa said.

He charged that Magashule’s attempt to suspend him was in fact nothing more than a tit-fortat move.

“The circumstances and manner of his suspension make it quite clear that the applicant acted out of vengeful spite against the decision of the NWC that he be suspended together with all those members who had been charged with corruption and other serious offences but had failed to step aside,” said Ramaphosa.

He argued his purported suspension was “plainly unlawful”. “The rule only applies to members who have ‘been  indicted to appear in a court of law on any charges’. I have not been so indicted,” he said.

In the suspension letter he wrote to Ramaphosa, Magashule cited allegations of dodgy funding for the CR17 campaign for the ANC’s top spot as the reason therefor.

But Ramaphosa in his papers said to his knowledge “there is no structure of the ANC that has ever seriously
suggested that I was guilty of any criminal conduct in relation to the CR17 campaign”.

“The matter came before the courts only because the public protector unlawfully investigated the CR17 campaign,” he said.

In July 2019, Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane released a report on the CR17 campaign which focused, in part at least, on a R500 000 donation made by Gavin Watson – the late former chief executive of Bosasa.

It found the president had breached the executive ethics code by not disclosing the donation and misled parliament as well as that there was “merit” to the suspicion of money laundering. The report has, however, since been  reviewed and set aside by the High Court in Pretoria.

Political analyst Ralph Mathekga was yesterday of the opinion that Magashule had “no chance” in court, describing his “suspension” of Ramaphosa as “completely unprocedural”.

“You don’t just wake up and say: I’ve been suspended, so now I’m going to suspend the president.”

He posited, though, that Magashule’s end goal might not be a legal win and that he could just be trying to buy time.

Another political analyst Dr Protas Madlala echoed these sentiments. “I don’t even think it’s worth entertaining,”  he said.

“I just don’t understand the basis on which any one individual member of the party can make that decision.”

In the letter he wrote to Ramaphosa purporting to suspend him, Magashule had said: “On 3 May 2021, the NWC, acting in terms of Rule 25.70 read with Rule 13, instructed that letters be written to all affected members, including yourself, to inform them that it has decided that their temporary suspension would be in the best interests of the organisation.

“Accordingly, on the authority of the NWC and as a result of the allegations referred to here above, you are hereby  temporarily suspended with effect 3 May, from all activities of the ANC pending the internal processes of the ANC, as well as the finalisation of the pending matters to which I have referred above.”

The letter was dated 3 May but only delivered to the president two days later, after Magashule himself was  suspended over criminal allegations of fraud and corruption he’s facing in connection with the R255 million Free
State asbestos roofing scandal.

– bernadette@citizen.co.za