polokwane – praag.org

ANC national chairwoman warns of plot to unseat Zuma

ANC national chairwoman Baleka Mbete believes there is an internal plot to unseat President Jacob Zuma before he completes his second term.

Speaking at the ANC Limpopo provincial general council in Polokwane on Sunday night, Mbete said Zuma’s detractors who failed to oust him as party leader in Mangaung in 2012 had regrouped to plot his downfall.

Without mentioning names, Mbete said: “There are people there in Parliament who’ve allowed themselves to become part of a whole huge ‘Zuma must go’ agenda.”

She said Zuma’s foes within the party were plotting with opposition politicians by holding clandestine meetings.

The plan, she said, was to oust Zuma during the ANC national general council (NGC) in October. The NGC is held between national conferences, and it is meant to, among other things, evaluate the performance of national executive committee members, of which Zuma forms part, according to the ANC constitution.

This isn’t the first time Zuma’s name has been mentioned in relation to a conspiracy.

The so-called Special Browse Mole Report of 2007 suggested that Angolan intelligence forces plotted to support the then axed deputy president Zuma’s attempt to take over the presidency.

The report had been compiled by the disbanded crime-fighting unit, the Scorpions. It led to then president Thabo Mbeki’s downfall at Polokwane in December 2007.

Subsequently, Zuma was elected to steer the ANC.

On Monday night, an ANC regional leader in Limpopo, commenting anonymously, said that if the allegations were true, those behind the plot were wasting their time.

“If it’s true that there is a plot to remove that man in the PGC (provincial general council), it means those people don’t understand ANC politics.

“Zuma is well entrenched now,” he added.

Source: IOL

Rifle on bakkie kills Afrikaner hunter

Bakkie with hunters similar to the one in the incident

A man died in a Pietersburg hospital, several days after he was accidentally shot in a freak hunting accident, Beeld reported on Tuesday.

Juan Pierre Kleingeld, 24, was driving a bakkie during a hunting expedition on Friday, transporting a group of his friends, some of whom were standing in the back.

A hunting rifle discharged, and the bullet hit Kleingeld in the head, the newspaper reported.

He was rushed to the Limpopo Mediclinic in a critical state. Kleingeld died on Monday.

Police spokeswoman Ronel Otto said it was not yet clear whether an existing charge of attempted murder being investigated by the police would be changed to one of murder. – Sapa

Malema case to continue in Pietersburg Magistrate’s Court today

Expelled ANC Youth League president Julius Malema’s corruption case will continue in the Pietersburg Magistrate’s Court on Friday.

On Thursday, Malema told the court he feared that a delay in setting a trial date for his case could jeopardise the launch of his new political party.

“The sooner this case is finished, the better. I am in the process of forming a [political] party,” he said.

Malema blamed President Jacob Zuma for some of his troubles.

“It becomes impossible to convince people to join the party. President Zuma has done everything to make sure that I lost everything and block whoever is linked with Malema,” he told the court.

Malema is accused of making nearly R4 million from corrupt activities.

He is out on bail of R10,000 and faces charges of fraud, corruption, money-laundering, and racketeering.

His co-accused are his business associates Kagisho Dichabe, Lesiba Gwangwa, Helen Moreroa, and Makgetsi Manthata, who are out on bail of R40,000 each.

The State alleges Malema and the others misrepresented themselves to the Limpopo roads and transport department, leading to a R52m contract being awarded to On-Point Engineering.

According to court papers, Malema had business ties with Gwangwa, a director of On-Point Engineering. Malema’s Ratanang Family Trust was an indirect shareholder in On-Point.

The department paid the company R43m. According to the charge sheet, Malema substantially benefited from this payment, using it to buy a farm and a Mercedes-Benz. – Sapa

Floyd Shivambu on ANC’s tribal politics

traditionalzulu — Zulu tradition irks ex-ANCYL leader

A few years ago, the ANC made a huge blunder in electing Jacob Zuma as President of the ANC in December 2007. Ironically, the re-election of President Thabo Mbeki in the same Conference would have been a huge blunder, portraying an incapable ANC that cannot outgrow its individual leaders. This is an unfortunate part of politics where it happens that both sides of political options are disastrous.

Now, Polokwane bred a disaster in Jacob Zuma who despite his literary incapabilities, has very low or non-existent moral standards, and obsessed with enrichment of his family members and household. An expectation was somewhat developed towards Polokwane that the election of Jacob Zuma will lead to discontinuation of rabid presidentialism and the ANC will be taken to the people. It was not to be so judging by the many individually inspired blunders committed by the sitting President both as ANC President and President of the Republic of South Africa.

Election of Jacob Zuma in the 53rd National Conference of the ANC will be the biggest blunder the ANC would have made in its history because it is going to lead to massive electoral support decline of the ANC. Majority of the people will lose confidence on the capacity of the ANC to create conditions for betterment of their lives and govern society effectively. The ANC should never elect Zuma, despite efforts to co-ordinate tribal support in KwaZulu Natal.

Between January and August 2012, the membership of the ANC in KwaZulu Natal grew by more than 100 000, actually more than 36% growth, meaning that KZN delegates will have mandates from unseasoned members on what should be the direction of the ANC. The membership growth had nothing to do with organisational development and growth, but the tribal need to defend a fellow Zulu speaking individual who has failed to provide leadership to the ANC.

What this means is that a tribal regiment has been mobilized as voting fodder to defend and protect President Zuma. Under real circumstances, there can never be a straight thinking individual without tribal prejudices, and without expectation to be defended from corrupt practices, and without legitimate expectation of being recipient of State and government patronage who will support the re-election of President Zuma as President of the ANC, and subsequently as President of South Africa until 2019.

If in their wisdom, ANC members believe and think that the re-election of President Zuma is the right thing to do, then the ANC would have lost its moral compass and total wrong. It will mean that the people of South Africa will be justified to lose confidence in the ANC.

Jacob Zuma is a corrupt leader who encourages corruption of self-enrichment. We can all appreciate that the Courts of law have not yet decided on his impending guilty verdict, and it does not need rocket science to know and notice that any competitive and fair court of law will find him guilty of corruption. The biggest corruption however is that Jacob Zuma will cost the South African government more than R1 billion on his three official residences, many wives who are subsidized by the State, and now recently the expansion of his private residence in Nkandla and the roads leading towards there.

A R1 billion can do a lot in the eradication of informal settlements and bettering of living conditions of many fronts. Zuma is a liability to the ANC, to the country and to the image of Africans the world over. He must be stopped sooner than later and held accountable for his corruption, fraud and money laundering.

The wisdom or lack of it on the President’s side led to first, militarization of the Police, second, destabilization of its leadership through unexplainable release of Police Commissioner Bheki Cele, and appointment of an inexperienced and Security cluster novice police commissioner Riya Phiyega.

The mishandling of the mass wage protests in Marikana in August this year, which led to the massacre was as a result of the directionlessness of the police and lack of experienced leadership. The Police Commissioner is on record of justifying the Marikana massacre claiming that the police were defending themselves, whilst they conspicuously resorted to cold-blooded killing of protestors after failing to arrest all of them for withdrawing their labour from the Mines.

The reason why the Mines protests happened in the first place is a reflection of lack of leadership at the highest level of the State and government. As a territory with mineral resources endowments, the leadership of South Africa have a permanent obligation to ensure that the people of South Africa, not Mine bosses, derive maximum benefits through salaries and decent human settlements from the extraction of Mineral resources.

The Zuma led government does and has never even pretended to care about the well-being of the people and Mineworkers, the government has instead arrested thousands of mineworkers, injured and killed some of them and recurrently assured Mine bosses that they are safe and should not panic. President Zuma went to the extent of deploying the military to intimidate mineworkers and those who associate with them from pursuing a national protest action against Mine bosses. South Africa has degenerated into a Security State due to the insecurities of President Jacob Zuma.

Offered an opportunity to provide political and ideological leadership to the ANC, President Zuma dismally failed and instead gave a pathetic characterization of the ANC struggles as second transition, which in all intents and purposes deviates from the core values and mission of the ANC to achieve Freedom Charter objectives.

Members of the ANC had to re-educate President Zuma in the Policy Conference that our struggle cannot be characterized as second transition because the first transition towards attainment of Freedom Charter objectives has not been fulfilled. In the ANC, inability of a sitting President to provide political and ideological leadership is treacherous. There is not even a single new idea or intervention provided by President Zuma that has taken the country forward, and yet he still want re-election for another 5 years.

Re-election of Jacob Zuma will not only cause massive and irreparable divisions in the ANC, it will isolate a significant number of voters in the 2014 general elections, most of whom will stay away for fear of voting for a white dominated party and some who will guarantee the opposition increased majority and representation in the National Assembly and Provincial Legislations.

This is an absolute fact and ANC structures and members should in a uniting fashion avoid repeating the mistakes made in the 52^nd National Conference of electing a leader who is only concerned about his personal and private family’s upliftment, whilst not offering any durable, sound and sustainable solutions to South Africa’s crisis of unemployment, poverty and inequalities. We cannot afford to repeat mistakes.

Floyd Shivambu is an Economic Freedom Fighter.

Malema granted bail

Expelled ANC Youth League president Julius Malema was granted bail of R10,000 by the Polokwane Regional Court on Wednesday.

Malema was officially charged with money-laundering, for allegedly “receiving proceeds from unlawful activities”.

The affidavit he made in support of his application for bail was not read out in court. The case was postponed to November 30.

Malema appeared with his business partner and co-accused Selbie Manthatha.

An affidavit by Manthatha was read to the court by his counsel. It detailed his family life, his business and his assets.

Before Malema’s affidavit could be read, the court adjourned for five minutes.

When the case reconvened, bail was immediately granted to both of them.

Hawks’ spokesman McIntosh Polela said the charge against Malema should not be taken lightly.

“Money-laundering is not a frivolous charge, and it can incur a sentence of 15 years.”

He said there had been a lot of speculation in the media of more charges being brought against Malema, but this was not true.

Polela would not comment on the trial, and said he would prefer the case to be allowed to run its course.

Supporters clung to the gates outside the court waiting for feedback on the decision about Malema’s bail.

Hearing that it had been granted, they broke into song and dance.

Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi said no incidents of violence were reported.

“The crowd is very orderly and I hope it will remain smooth like this throughout the day.”

The crowd outside had swelled to nearly 1000 people in anticipation of an address by Malema.

Supporters of Malema welcomed him into the court on Wednesday with song and dance.

Malema’s family and supporters stood up in court and sang loudly when he entered the dock.

They sang: “Asani mahloni” [We are not ashamed]. Court officials did not stop the singing.

Suspended African National Congress Youth League spokesman Floyd Shivambu, suspended secretary general Sindiso Magaqa and senior ANCYL members joined the dancing.

Earlier, journalists, photographers and television camera crews were kicked out of the court.

Despite applications by certain media houses to be allowed into the court, reporters were removed by officials who insisted the applications were for individuals and not crews.

Pandemonium broke out when the journalists were forcibly removed. One was dragged out by two security guards.

eNews Channel Africa reporter Karyn Maughan collapsed outside the court.

Riot police were deployed inside the court to keep order.

Some journalists were later allowed back inside.

Supporters outside the court were adamant that Malema had done nothing wrong.

“There is nothing wrong [with what]… our leader did. If he did anything wrong why [is this case happening] now?” asked a supporter.

“It is because we are going to Mangaung. This is just a plan to sabotage our leader.”

Thulani Motsepe, 23, from Germiston said he took a taxi to Polokwane on Tuesday because he felt he needed to show the world that Malema was innocent.

Malema’s supporters believed their presence would have an impact on the charges against him.

“I came all the way from the inner city branch in Johannesburg, just to prove that there is no case against my leader,” said 27-year-old Xolelwa Ngele.

A placard carried by supporters read: “hands-off our leader, he did nothing wrong”.

When Malema arrived at the court, some of his supporters ran towards the court fence, jostling to get a glimpse of him.

Lethabo Mandela, 57, from Seshego joined the crowed in song and dance. She said she was prepared to die for Malema.

“Julius, I love you and I will support you until I die. I’m prepared to die for you. Police can come and kill me,” said Mandela, who joined the ANC in 1984.

She said charges against Malema should be dropped, like the corruption charges against President Jacob Zuma.

“If they can do it to Zuma they must also do it with Julius.”

The crowd sang songs in favour of Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, while mocking Zuma.

Nearly 600 supporters gathered outside the court.

Roads leading to the court were closed on Wednesday and police were monitoring the situation.

There was barbed wire outside the court and police Nyalas were positioned in various places surrounding the court.

Hundreds of Malema supporters sang and danced outside the courthouse. The crowd was expected to swell as the day progressed.

Others sat on the pavement, and leaned against the walls after participating in a night vigil for Malema on Tuesday.

Provincial ANCYL spokesman Klaas Mabunda claimed the crowd numbered 14,000 at 3am.

“Most of them are not here now. They have gone to town to get food because they are hungry.”

Malema is accused of money-laundering. The charge sheet lists him as accused number 10.

On Tuesday, four of his co-accused appeared in court and were granted bail of R40,000 each.

They are accused of fraud, corruption and money-laundering, relating to a R52 million tender awarded to On-Point Engineers. Four companies were also charged.

Malema handed himself over to the Polokwane police on Wednesday morning, before his court appearance, reported SABC. – Sapa