New ANC leaders may be crooks too

It certainly looks like the ANC has dealt the final political hand for former Free State premier Ace Magashule, after he and his supporters were ignominiously muscled out of all key positions in the party’s provincial structures.

Leading the rout was the new ANC Free State provincial chair Mxolisi Dukwana, one of Magashule’s most bitter political enemies and an ardent supporter of President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Magashule must know that it is cold outside the ANC… that is why he and some of the others loyal to former president Jacob Zuma have been trying to wrest back the control they used to have within the organisation.

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He will be only too aware that he and one of his allies, former North West premier Supra Mahumapelo, are headed for the dustbin of history.

And he must also been conscious of the fact that his fall from grace won’t end there – because he has a list of corruption charges to face: those already levelled and those possibly to come.

So, the rejection must have come as a blow, especially after all the hard work he and pro-Zuma allies put in in the late ’90s to oust then Free State premier Terror Lekota and also to undermine the then president, Thabo Mbeki.

The object, for Magashule and others in the state capture network, was to use political power to enrich themselves and their accomplices. That is why the country as a whole should welcome the removal of people such as him from positions of power.

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However, whether or not the triumphant ANC faction loyal to Ramaphosa is going to be any better as an alternative is still awaiting a final verdict. The signs, though, are not hopeful. We may be getting rid of Magashule, Mahumapelo and their chief, Zuma, but getting more crooks in their place.