Politics.za

The SACP is worried about the founding of the Progressive ANC Voters Network, a ‘caucus’ (for want of a better more official sounding word) whose founders include TAC leader Zackie Achmat, who still confounds me with his decision to publicly support the ANC despite the ANC controlled government wishing he would just go away and die (literally). I guess that’s idealism.

The fact that there are internal movements within ANC membership is not really a suprise but these have always been unofficial and more of a loose affiliation than a formal organisation like the Progressive ANC Voters Network aims to be. Nevertheless they are extremely important. Thabo Mbeki managed to get the influential ‘Islanders’ (ANC politicians who had done time on Robben Island- Mandela) to back him and his ‘Exiles’ (ANC politicians who spent most of the struggle in exile) over the much more popular Cyril Ramaphosa. And of course Jacob Zuma has his pals in the ‘Operation Vula’ gang.

Now these affiliations and groupings are pretty much an open secret but they are only discussed behind closed doors as the ANC loves to do. Which is probably why the SACP objects to this as I would guess a ‘progressive’ network such as the one Achmat has started could steal some of the leftist thunder from the SACP.

Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin took time out of his schedule shovelling tax payer money into SAA to appear on the BBC’s Hard Talk where he made it clear he won’t be voting for Zuma at the upcoming ANC NEC elections.

Q: Do you think Jacob Zuma, a man whose behaviour both towards women and in terms of his financial probity has been under close scrutiny over the last couple of years, do you believe he is a man who could credibly lead South Africa?

A:I think, on Jacob Zuma’s record, I think that he will have great difficulty winning this election in the ANC.

Funding a political party in South Africa is an expensive business. It’s estimated the ANC spent R100 million alone in the last national elections which is much much more than the amount the ANC earns from it’s members, who pay R12 a year in membership dues. We know political parties receive funding from other sources particularly massive donations, such as the R25 million given to the ANC (and R500 000 to the DA) by Brett Kebble. Because SA has no laws requiring political parties to disclose their funding, which both the ANC and DA prefer for differing reasons, we have no real idea of exactly who is secretly buying favour.

Which is why the $2 billion deal between SA’s Chancellor House and Russia’s Azot to build a new fertiliser plant in SA stinks to high heaven and it’s definitely not due to the fertiliser. Chancellor House was originally uncovered as an ANC fundraising front by the Mail & Guardian and the Financial Mail covered them in January and found them to be a particularly shady one at that. Even ANC Secretary General Kgalema Motlanthe was unaware of their presence but later admitted to it’s role as an “ANC vehicle”.

Now this deal stinks because it the first deal to emerge from the newly established SA-Russia Business Council and coincidentally this deal involves a company that does not only have close ties to the ANC, it is for all intents and purposes the ANC itself. ANC PR spokesman Smuts Ngonyama has denied that there is anything suspicious about the deal and claims that Chancellor House has nothing to do with the ANC despite Motlanthe’s earlier admission about Chancellor House.

What do you do if you’re virtually a lame duck premier, having already been removed from provincial party leadership and now biding time while you wait for the next elections and your inevitable exit from power? Why you start a blog (h/t Africannibas)!! I guess he needs something to keep him busy between disciplinary panel hearings.

Here’s an excerpt of a speech Thabo Mbeki gave to the House of Traditional Leaders:

If a member of the royal family, whose conduct is that of a rascal and who has no respect or value for the people, introduces himself to the people and says … that he is an heir to the highest house in the royal family and to the kingdom of his nation, he must not hope that the nation is going to respect him and accept his rule.

Even I can stand firm on my feet regardless of the difficulties and say, this one cannot lead, whatever is said, we do not want him.

• royal family – ANC
• rascal – person who sleeps with HIV positive women and is alleged to have solicted bribes
• heir to the highest house – the deserving presidential candidate
• the nation – ANC National Executive delegates

I hope that makes it’s a little bit clearer.

Things are not going well for Ebrahim Rasool. The supposedly “Africanist” camp that runs the Western Cape ANC, after pushing Rasool out as party leader, headed by James Ngculu and Mcebiso Skwatsha are not exactly making his life easy at the moment. Looks like he’ll be called to grovel in front of party leadership for daring to call some members of the ANC his ‘opponents’. Got to keep that illusion of ANC unity going at all costs!

You read that headline right, I almost spat out my mid-morning sarmie on reading this story:

Affirmative action is not here to stay – that is if the African National Congress is to be believed.

Although the party does not moot a sunset clause for the policy, it does acknowledge in its draft strategy and tactics document that the need for affirmative action “will decline in the same measure as all centres of power and influence become broadly representative of the country’s demographics”.

I was getting all excited till I got to that last sentence. So basically as the representation of people in the formal economy begins to represent the makeup of the population the need for affirmative action will disappear. Which is basically a statement saying nothing much is going to change at the moment considering some areas of the formal economy. How many black CA’s do we have in SA? More than 500?. It seems AA will be around for a while longer.

I urge everyone to read last week’s cover story from the Financial Mail, Soul For Sale, which covers the spectre of corruption and graft in the ANC. It’s pretty depressing reading, and no quote illustrates it better than this one from an ANC member in the Northern Cape describing the behaviour of some of his councillors:

In the Northern Cape we no longer have an ANC leadership. We have an ANC dealership.

Despite the continued statements concerning unity in the tripartite, alliance the relationship between the ANC and COSATU/SACP is not getting any better. A weekend meeting between the ANC and it’s alliance members nearly resulted in a walkout of COSATU/SACP delegates after Deputy Finance Minister Jabu Moleketi accused them of “tailism”(?), attempting to turn the ANC into a socialist organisation and not producing enough leaders. He also said their father was an elderberry and their mother wore combat boots. Ok I made up those last two.

I expect as the ANC NEC elections get closer we’ll be seeing even more of these outbursts.

Mayor Helen Zille has ejected the AMP from the DA led coalition in the Cape Town city council for what she calls ‘blackmail’ after the AMP demanded that their councillor Badih Chaaban be made deputy mayor. When Zille refused the AMP began talks with the ANC which then prompted Zille to give them the boot. If the AMP do now join with the ANC it will reduce the DA coalition majority to one vote. With a by election in Hout Bay next month the ANC could draw level if they win that.

Correction: The DA coalition is already in minority, 103 votes against a potential 106.

Update: ID: DA approached us

Update: DA Mal weighs in.

Update: ID joins Zille camp