Cope calls ANC a disgrace for defending Magashule

Congress of the People (Cope) has called the ANC a disgrace for defending their secretary-general, Ace Magashule, on serious allegations mentioned in a newly released book, titled Gangster State: Unraveling Ace Magashule’s web of capture.

The ANC rubbished claims made in a Sunday Times report, accusing Magashule of rampant corruption, ruthless gangsterism, and even exaggerating his struggle credentials.

Gangster State: Unravelling Ace Magashule’s Web of Capture contains various accounts of tales that place Magashule squarely at the centre of the state capture saga.

One such tale is an account of former Mangaung mayor Thabo Manyoni’s first meeting with the Guptas, which was facilitated by Magashule.

Manyoni goes on to chronicle the slow death of his political career suffered after his refusal to cooperate in state capture.

The ANC hasted to the defence of its secretary-general, labelling the allegations fake news, timed for publication a month before the May elections.

The ANC statement said: “The latest salvo is a clearly well-coordinated media attack in today’s Sunday Times and City Press on our secretary general comrade Ace Magashule. The front page stories in both the Sunday Times and City Press, which are almost identical in content, and even have whole paragraphs with exactly the same wording, are based on a typical Stratcom style fake-news book by Pieter-Louis Myburgh, with the sensationalist and ridiculously propagandistic title, Gangster State – Unravelling Ace Magashule’s Web of Capture. Myburgh has since 2016 been disseminating lies about the secretary-general, so we see this book as a culmination of all those lies.

“These ‘fake news stories and the dubious book’ they were based on were timed for publication barely a month before the May 8 national elections in order to try and inflict the maximum damage against Magashule. It was evidently the ‘opening propaganda salvo in a carefully planned Stratcom operation to unfold in the coming days and weeks’ against Magashule and the ANC, using the launch of Myburgh’s book on Sunday and the ‘lies that it peddles as the basis for a vicious character assassination campaign’.

“The ANC sees this highly personalised and vicious attack on our secretary-general as a direct and well-calculated attack, not only on the person of the secretary-general, but in fact on the office of the secretary general (SGO), which is the administrative engine room of the ANC, and as such critical for our election campaign efforts.

“Evidently the secretary general of the ANC, as the CEO of the ANC, is the main target. These attacks are aimed at undermining the ANC’s election campaign and weakening the ANC in general.”

In a tweet, the party said: “Cope is also surprised because [the] ANC has for years been aiding and abetting corrupt officials of the party,” and used former president Jacob Zuma as a case in point.

@Magashule_Ace has destroyed the entire FS & its economy. We are determined to root out corruption,it’s our responsibility to expose corrupt leaders so that they must be arrested and put behind bars @MYANC @pakesdikgetsi @SABCNewsOnline @TheCitizen_News @ewnreporter @JacaNews

— Team COPE (@COPE_SA) April 1, 2019

COPE intends bringing criminal charges of corruption&fraud against @Magashule_Ace. We can’t allow ourselves to be complicit in keeping quiet&hiding behind the “innocent until proven guilty” @MYANC @pakesdikgetsi @TheCitizen_News @SABCNewsOnline @JacaNews @IOL @Loate11 @MTLekota

— Team COPE (@COPE_SA) April 1, 2019

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