ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule’s self-righteous hysteria over the Derek Hanekom issue is a convenient diversion from the damning allegations that emerged at the state capture inquiry this week concerning the Vrede dairy farm matter.
This scandal saw at least R200m of taxpayers’ money meant for emerging black farmers in the small town of Vrede in the Free State, where Magashule was premier, flowing to a Gupta-linked company, Estina. Some of the loot was allegedly used to settle the bills for the Guptas’ lavish family wedding at Sun City in 2013.
The commission heard this week how Magashule and Mosebenzi Zwane, who was then Free State agriculture MEC, were aware of irregularities taking place in the project but curiously allowed for substantial payments to be made towards the programme.
What all of this does tell us is that there is no such thing as unity in the ANC. The big question is whether you can have a clean-up campaign and a drive for unity at the same time.
One of the intended beneficiaries, Vrede small-scale farmer Ephraim Dhlamini, told the commission how he was told he would be taken to India for training. But instead of taking farmers, Zwane took his church choir. He said promises were made to the intended beneficiaries at meetings they had with Zwane, but in the end none of them saw a single cent from the project.
All of this happened at the time Magashule was running the Free State. It is therefore rich for Magashule to call Hanekom, an ANC veteran and national executive committee (NEC) member, a charlatan in the statement he released late on Wednesday night, when he and others in his party are facing serious allegations of corruption and siphoning off money meant to uplift the poor.
The comments about Hanekom came after EFF leader Julius Malema told supporters outside the high court in Pretoria earlier in the week that Hanekom had “plotted” with the red berets to bring down former president Jacob Zuma.
Malema’s swipe at Hanekom came after the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation, of which the former tourism minister is chair, joined the SA Communist Party to launch what they labelled “the fightback to the fightback” against the state capture clean-up. They accused public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane, who the EFF supports, of being part of the clean-up fightback.
Hanekom seems unfazed by Malema’s so-called revelation, confirming that he met EFF secretary-general Godrich Gardee but saying there was nothing wrong with two MPs talking. Nevertheless, this seems to have given Magashule the ammunition he was looking for to go for Hanekom.
Magashule said he was “dismayed” by the confession and called Hanekom an EFF sleeper, saying there were many others in the ANC like him. “The ANC is working to unite its members and in our midst is Derek Hanekom, a wedge driver and on a mission to divide the ANC. Indeed, this charlatan is making his mark through his ownership of the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation,” Magashule said.
“Well, we say to him and other EFF sleepers in the ANC, this only makes the members of the NEC, PEC [provincial executive committee], REC [regional executive committee] and branches more determined to unite the ANC and deliver services to the people of SA ... We will ride this storm of accusations and counter accusations.”
Magashule’s statement seemed to also embolden Zuma, who last week made allegations that there were apartheid spies in the ANC who had been working since 1990 to get rid of him.
The former president took to Twitter on Thursday morning, essentially identifying Hanekom as one of those spies. “I’m not surprised by @Julius_S_Malema revelations regarding @Derek_Hanekom. It is part of the plan I mentioned at the Zondo Commission. @Derek_Hanekom is a known enemy agent,” he wrote.
Zuma’s allegations of spies working for almost 30 years to get rid of him is, like Magashule’s comments about Hanekom, clearly a tactic to divert the narrative away from the allegations of state capture and corruption. And once again it is working. The country is now enthralled by the allegations, forgetting the real issues that led to the crumbling of our economy and the state. The matter of Hanekom meeting with the EFF is a red herring. It does not change anything. Zuma is gone, and even if the meeting had not taken place the ANC would still have recalled him.
But what all of this does tell us is that there is no such thing as unity in the ANC. The big question is whether you can have a clean-up campaign and a drive for unity at the same time, when those who are responsible for the rampant corruption in the country remain inside the party.
On Sunday, when President Cyril Ramaphosa addressed the issue of the public protector’s Bosasa findings against him, he waxed lyrical about combating corruption and how he will not be deterred from uniting the ANC. It is quite clear, however, that the likes of Magashule do not want a united ANC — they want Ramaphosa and his allies gone, and they are fighting dirty to do it.
It is simple: Ramaphosa is alone in his unity project.
• Quintal is political editor.
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