Ace plays his cards well, weighing in on posters and other ANC issues

Ace Magashule, former secretary-general of the ANC and now president-general of the African Congress for Transformation (ACT), has refuted rape claims against him, saying he has not been approached by the police.

These follow allegations that a case of rape had been opened against a member of the so-called “premier league”, which was in defence of former president Jacob Zuma.

Police have not confirmed who the suspect is as he has not been formally charged, nor appeared in court. Magashule, however, insisted it was not him.

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“Maybe you are aware – it’s all over the media. How can I be aware when I have not been approached? Whatever happens, I am confident that there’s nothing like that. I don’t know the person who laid the charges,” he said.

Yesterday, Magashule was in Evaton, Emfuleni, where he received a hero’s welcome from party supporters and some people wearing ANC regalia.

He said ANC, ActionSA and some Economic Freedom Fighters members were expected to join ACT.

“We are here today because we were invited by comrades of the ANC who said they want to join ACT. They initiated it, it’s their initiative and we said that’s okay.

“We have been addressing many townships and many people on the ground. This one we said, let’s go public.

“People think we are not on the ground. We are on the ground. I’m an activist and I’m activating for change.”

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“Today we are recruiting and campaigning; we are also giving our people hope – those who are hopeless, those who have no food, those who are jobless. ACT is coming to change the lives of our people.”

On the ANC-Ezulwini Investments matter, he said the ruling party owed money to the company. Current ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula said this week the party had signed no deal with Ezulwini.

Following threats of liquidation, Mbalula said the claims by Ezulwini were fraudulent and a heist against the ruling party.

He said during the party’s investigation “it emerged that two junior staff members without authorisation had been dealing with Ezulwini. Like all heists, they happen with internal conniving. This is a fraudulent matter”.

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Magashule refuted those claims, saying it was unfair for the party to blame junior staffers. There was no way they could have contested the election and never known from which company the posters came from.

“You then want to blame juniors. I was secretary-general. I’m sure I can defend the workers. It’s unfair, so unfair.

“I know all the companies we worked with. It’s a matter of the ANC and that company, let me not get into that space.”

He said he had deposed an affidavit confirming “as far as I know, there are letters sent to that company that we will pay whenever we have money”.

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And about Mavuso Msimang, the ANC Veterans’ League deputy president who resigned from the party this week, he said: “I still respect him and I’ll contact him.”

“You can see our people are tired of being promised commitments, of people going to them after six or seven years – they have never gone door-to-door.

“It’s only now that people want votes and they do door-to-door. “I do door-to-door once a week [and] I have never seen this kind of poverty and famine I see today.”