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Despite a week in which strong allegations of the president’s capture by the Guptas were made, pro-Zuma ANC NEC members have squashed the issue
President Jacob Zuma survived another day as his backers fought back ferociously against detractors who wanted to use his relationship with the controversial Gupta family to remove him from his position.
The move towards his censure and possible recall was roundly defeated by Zuma supporters, who came prepared for a fight at the national executive committee (NEC) meeting, having plotted through Thursday night for the showdown.
The campaign to have him fired, which seemed to be gaining momentum after this week’s explosive revelations about the Guptas’ alleged interference in the running of government, lost steam by the end of the first day of the meeting.
Instead, Zuma was met with a standing ovation when he arrived at the Saint George’s Hotel in Irene, Pretoria, on Friday.
An NEC member said it was important to project unity because of the media talk of divisions in the ANC during the week.
City Press understands that those unhappy with Zuma’s leadership decided to talk about the issue of “state capture” in general, without seeking to conflate it with a call for Zuma to step down.
The pro-Zuma group in the ANC worked throughout the night on Thursday to come up with a plan to defend him at all costs, including hanging out the dirty laundry of those gunning for the president.
“We were waiting for them to start it today,” said an NEC member sympathetic to Zuma on Friday. “There was that thing that they want to recall the president. It was going to get very dirty and they retreated.”
He said a proposal for a special national conference of the ANC to elect new leaders was shot down and only supported by no more than two people, while others soon realised that the numbers were against them.
A special national conference must be supported by ANC resolutions from at least five provinces.
The Zuma group fought hard to exclude an item about the Gupta family on the agenda.
“They are putting the issues of the media on the agenda here. The Guptas are not members of the NEC, so why talk about them here?” said another pro-Zuma NEC member. “It was rubbished. Only a few people tried, but when they realised that the requisite majority did not agree, others started talking politics, such as the unity of the ANC and so forth,” he added.
However, those in the opposing camp said the decision to avoid the issue on the first day was “a clever strategy” to weaken their opponents ahead of the second set of discussions yesterday where the national working committee report was discussed.
The report is said to have put specific emphasis on state capture.
“The debate now is how we deal with the elephant in the room decisively, not just the Guptas but also the corporate capture of the movement,” said an alliance leader.
“The Zuma people came to defend him against the recall, but did not realise that this would take a different turn,” added the leader.
City Press understands that towards the end of the meeting on Saturday, there was consensus that state capture was a dangerous phenomenon that needed to be stopped.
Members of the NEC agreed that the party could not stop its members from having business interests, but there needed to be a code of conduct to regulate this.
More research would be conducted on the subject and a report prepared for the party.
On Friday, Thenjiwe Mtintso, a former top-six member of the ANC, stood up to raise the bigger picture of corporate capture. She told the meeting that part of the problem was that party members had started “worshipping leaders instead of respecting them”. She is said to have received loud applause for tackling the issue and expressing views that many in the room felt strongly about.
One of the pro-Zuma NEC members said: “If they had numbers, they would have said: ‘Let us vote.’ But their numbers are not there. They are talking about the Guptas, but who are the Guptas in the NEC? What did they do to the NEC or ANC?” he asked.
The senior leader said that Deputy Finance Minister Mcebisi Jonas was chastised and ridiculed for his handling of the allegations that the Guptas had offered him the post of finance minister weeks before Zuma fired Nhlanhla Nene last December.
City Press understands that the meeting briefly discussed Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan’s battle with the Hawks, emphasising that it had to be solved quickly because “the thing killed the economy”.
Zuma is said to have told the meeting that he had his own processes under way in a bid to resolve the enmity and non-cooperation between Gordhan and SA Revenue Service commissioner Tom Moyane.
He said the Mpumalanga provincial secretary, Mandla Ndlovu, suggested in the meeting that Jonas may have agreed with the Guptas after the offer was made, but came out publicly about the offer five months later because he did not get the position, prompting a bout of laughter from those in his camp.
City Press heard that the Eastern Cape provincial secretary, Oscar Mabuyane, tried to defend Jonas but the opposing group did not relent.
The head of the ANC’s economic transformation committee, Enoch Godongwana, suggested that the ANC determine a code of conduct on how NEC members could do business.
An NEC member critical of Zuma said that, at the very least, they would be happy if the president was pushed to distance himself from and cut all ties with the Guptas.
He said they were aware that a recall of the president took a long time and would be complicated by the fact that Zuma was a sitting president of the ANC, unlike Thabo Mbeki when he was recalled as state president.
By Saturday, it appeared that a faction angry about state capture and the role of the Gupta family would settle for a referral to the party’s integrity committee, which is led by veteran Andrew Mlangeni.
“A lot more rot will come out over time. Those in the leadership of the ANC would have to go to the integrity committee to disclose what happened,” said the NEC member critical of Zuma.
Another concern raised at the meeting was how newly sworn-in MP Sfiso Buthelezi jumped the queue to Parliament. Buthelezi, whose name does not feature on the ANC’s list to the Independent Electoral Commission, was sworn in as an MP and is earmarked to take one of the positions in an anticipated Cabinet reshuffle at the end of the month.
There was speculation during the week that Buthelezi was to be made deputy finance minister to replace Jonas. Other talk was that he would be made public enterprises minister after parastatals currently governed by Treasury, such as SAA, are returned to that department.
An NEC member in the Zuma camp said Buthelezi’s arrival in Parliament made people uncomfortable, leading to speculation about a reshuffle. He said SA Communist Party (SACP) leaders in government had always been worried that they would lose their portfolios if Zuma were to do another reshuffle.
“When Buthelezi came in, people saw a reshuffle. That is why they are building this crisis,” he said.
He said the SACP leaders who were at the meeting were “afraid to speak”, including those who often took up battles.
“They also have their proxies. These are the NEC members who are angry that they were not made ministers and deputy ministers,” said the pro-Zuma member.
The instability in North West also came up at the meeting. However, the report on the matter was dismissed as the views of ill-disciplined and disgruntled people, not the opinions of genuine ANC branches.
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