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An alliance of almost 20 years disintegrated into a 502-page castigation, with David Dube accusing David Mabuza of operating like a mafia boss
Former Mpumalanga ANC deputy chairperson David Dube has claimed that Deputy President David Mabuza set the police on him while he was mourning the death of his wife last year.
In his newly published 502-page book titled Al Capones of Mpumalanga – The Bad and Good Political Figures, Dube portrays his former political ally, and personal and family friend as a selfish and heartless individual, traits which he also carries as a politician.
The book is the first public statement made by someone who has been in Mabuza’s inner circle.
Considered an enigma, Mabuza’s rise to deputy presidency of the ANC and that of the country caught most people by surprise, while revealing what a master political tactician he is.
He kept everyone guessing who he was going to support between Cyril Ramaphosa and Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma right to the end.
Complaining of betrayal by a man whose political career he supported for nearly two decades, Dube does not hesitate to claim that he was in the inner circle and campaigned for Mabuza to be the ANC’s provincial deputy chairperson in 2005, to be Mpumalanga ANC chairperson in 2008 and to be premier in 2009.
Dube alleges that Mabuza implicated him in a crimen injuria charge that he laid against controversial ANC member Bishop Hangwi Maumela on August 11 last year, the day he buried his wife, Lindi Dube, who had succumbed to cancer.
Maumela, who shot to prominence as a campaigner for Ramaphosa towards Nasrec, was captured in a video recording branding Mabuza as a murderer at two events in Mpumalanga.
On page 95, Dube writes: “On August 11 2018, the day that I was burying my wife, you went to Secunda Police Station and opened a crimen injuria case against Bishop Azwihangwi Maumela and implicated me in your case, while I knew nothing or never had said anything against you at that Nelson Mandela Memorial Lecture. Up to this day, the police are haunting me and my privacy because of you … My mourning for my late wife has been severely infringed on by your actions and the police...”
Dube said Mabuza failed to call him or send his condolences despite the fact that he knew his wife and children personally and was regarded as a family friend.
Mabuza’s spokesperson, Thami Ngwenya, did not answer calls from City Press or respond to text and WhatsApp messages soliciting a comment about the book and the allegations it contains.
We had fun
Of their personal relationship, Dube said that Mabuza and he used to spend long, joyful nights together.
“We had fun in our own funny way until the wee hours of the morning, just chatting. We shared exciting moments of jokes and reflected on events. We shared college memories too. I could stomach the smell and smoke of his ‘special’ tobacco.”
Dube suffered the same fate as former provincial deputy chairperson Charles Makola.
They had a fallout and Mabuza’s “proxies” set in motion plans and strategies to remove him.
It is fact that none of Mabuza’s deputies have ever succeeded him. Towards the 2012 conference, Makola lost his job as Nkangala district municipal manager.
The same happened to Dube in 2015, his contract as Mpumalanga human settlements head was not renewed and he became deputy Mpumalanga legislature speaker, but again he was relegated to the back-benches.
Dube’s house torched
The author makes reference to service delivery protests that engulfed his home town of Mashishing (Lydenburg) in 2008, when he his house was petrol-bombed and burned to ashes. He was then serving as a councillor.
He said that Thaba Chweu’s former mayor and speaker, Mandla Mabelane, with whom he was a close ally before their estrangement, confessed that he was among the people who torched his house and apologised.
“What hurt me the most though was when comrade Mandla Mabelane, when he apologised, made the horrendous allegation that a senior provincial leader knew that my house was going to be burned down to ashes. He gave me the name of the leader. It was beyond my comprehension to accept this revelation. [It was] very painful,” Dube said.
He said that he met the leader face-to-face at an ANC provincial executive committee meeting and the leader laughed at him when he broke down in tears as the topic of his house was discussed.
“This leader never even attempted to console me after the house was burnt down. Instead, in a provincial executive committee meeting of the ANC, when I burst into tears when the matter of my burnt down house came up, I vividly remember him saying: ‘Ukhalelani? [Why are you crying?]’ and he laughed at me. Yes, he laughed. I could not comprehend at that time why he seemed sort of happy, but I kept on supporting him. If only I knew before!” Dube said.
Al Capone
Dube described Mabuza as a schemer who often dumped his friends and allies.
“Nothing is lasting with him. He gets what he wants from you then he moves on to the next person, and so it goes. He has no lasting friends. You are in today and tomorrow you are on the highway. You will remain with the dirt, but he will move on scot-free with white socks while your hands are muddied to the core,” Dube said.
“He makes people dependent on him and he listens to a lot of gossip from other comrades. He operates like a mafia. As they say, the mafia at its core is all about one thing – money. He is more like a boss than a leader. He can easily be dubbed the main Al Capone of Mpumalanga.”
As the book concludes, Dube says he is ready for litigation so that he can reveal more. He also says that he is prepared to undergo a public polygraph test.
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