The ANC was in a tailspin in two provinces this week over the membership of one Brian Molefe, who is set to be sworn in as MP.
The Molefe threat hung over Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan as he delivered yet another critical budget in a tough economic climate.
Molefe, who hailed from the office of the premier in Limpopo and became a "shining star" of the Mbeki administration, has been described in political circles as the "blue-eyed boy of Trevor Manuel" who had recommended him to Mbeki for the position of Public Investment Corporation CE.
Today, he is the man who has been identified as central to the state-capture plans outlined in the public protector’s report, State of Capture, with the link between him and the Gupta family laid bare — 19 visits made to their Saxonwold compound, and 58 phone calls between him and Atul Gupta over six months.
This after reportedly apologising to ANC president Jacob Zuma post-Polokwane for falling on the wrong side of the factional track.
MINERAL RESOURCES MINISTER MOSEBENZI ZWANE IS QUITE HAPPY TO SPEND R1.3M ON A LUXURY VEHICLE DESPITE AUSTERITY MEASURES
Two ANC branches have claimed Molefe as a member — one in Gauteng and another at Hartbeespoort.
Insiders say it is bordering on fraudulent to be a member of two ANC branches simultaneously. However, some leaders in Hartbeespoort dispute his membership.
In its haste to see him installed as MP, Zuma’s allies may have flouted the party’s most basic principles.
The furore is yet another example of factions manipulating party processes to achieve their own ends. It is reminiscent of the imposition of councillor candidates in the 2011 and 2016 local elections that hit the party’s election performance hard — a weakness Luthuli House has vowed to address.
The North West ANC nominated Molefe to replenish its party list for the National Assembly, but his membership of a branch in the province is disputed. Broadly aligned to Zuma, the province, put forward Molefe as part of attempts to move him into a strategic Cabinet post. He has been mooted since 2016 as a shoo-in for finance minister in the place of Pravin Gordhan, or for Deputy Finance Minister Mcebisi Jonas. He may be destined for another post — as Jonas said in an interview with Justice Malala on Monday, ministers serve at the pleasure of the president.
The tussle between party structures over Molefe’s membership is instructive in an ANC election year. It is a clear signal that many in the party are willing to go to great lengths to secure their own aims and ambitions, leaving anyone who assumes that the race for the party presidency will be free and fair looking hopelessly naive.
The ease with which party processes are being flouted is reflected in its governance.
On Wednesday, the High Court in Pretoria found the Cabinet had breached the doctrine of the separation of powers and the Constitution by failing to obtain prior approval from Parliament before it informed the UN that SA was withdrawing from the treaty that had established the International Criminal Court.
As it was the ANC-led government that pushed for and ratified the Rome Statute in Parliament, surely one in their ranks would have warned that this should be the process followed to withdraw from it as well?
But in its haste to quell the embarrassment over two judgments indicating that its failure to arrest Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir was inconsistent with its constitutional duties, the government has moved to rather pull out of the ICC.
The validity of that decision aside, the governing party should have known that due process had to be followed.
Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane is quite happy to spend R1.3m on a luxury vehicle despite austerity measures that have supposedly been in place for the past two years.
Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini is adamant she can extend an illegal contract for the payment of social grants.
She is now approaching the Constitutional Court, after it has already handed down judgment on the matter.
What she hopes to achieve is unclear.
The most glaring example was the government’s handling of the public protector’s ruling on Nkandla.
A string of judgments against the government in cases brought by public servants who had fallen foul of one politician or another and been removed or suspended unlawfully, is another indication.
It has happened in the National Prosecuting Authority, the South African Revenue Service, the Hawks and the Independent Police Investigative Directorate.
The rule of law and following due process are both clearly considered optional by the party and the government it leads.
• Marrian is political editor.
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