ANCYL wants Mcebisi Jonas out

The ANC Youth League wants Deputy Finance Minister Mcebisi Jonas fired.

His offence? He spoke out about a meeting with members of the Gupta family at which, he said, they offered him the job of finance minister.

As President Jacob Zuma insisted yesterday that his hands were clean, the youth league said it wanted Jonas to be disciplined and would call on the ANC's national executive committee to remove him.

The committee, which meets this weekend, will address the worsening scandal that has led ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe to warn that South Africa risked becoming ''a Mafia state''.

The Guptas, close friends of the president, are in business with his son, Duduzane. Jonas, who said their offer to him was made in November, before Zuma fired then finance minister Nhlanhla Nene, is not the only one on the youth league's hit list.

The league's secretary-general, Njabulo Nzuza, singled out a number of ministers - most of them SA Communist Party leaders - whom he alleged were sowing division in the ANC. They included Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande, who is also the SACP's general secretary, Public Works Minister Thulas Nxesi and Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies.

"We are fully aware that Jonas is not working alone. There is a bigger plot to delegitimise President Zuma," Nzuza said. He said there was a "communist posture faction" in the ANC that defended Nzimande when he "messed up''higher education.

The SACP has called on those members of the alliance who have been offered cabinet portfolios or senior positions in parastatals by the Guptas to come forward.

SACP spokesman Alex Mashilo said his party had called a meeting with the ANC to discuss the crisis. He said the SACP expected Zuma to account for the alleged influence the Gupta family had on the state. "We call on other cadres of the movement who had similar experiences to come forward publicly. Their silence amounts to betrayal." Mashilo said the party would demand that Zuma explain how the Guptas gained prior knowledge of some cabinet appointments.

The youth league also singled out the head of the ANC's economics subcommittee, Enoch Godongwana, who last week called on ANC members to march against the "nonsensical government".

The SACP said it was aware that a "Gupta-inspired cabinet [reshuffle]" was imminent. "The plan is to replace long-serving ... Rob Davies with a recently sworn-in ANC MP and businessperson," the party said. This appears to be a reference to Sfiso Buthelezi, who was sworn in as an MP after the resignation of Joyce Moloi-Moropa, an SACP treasurer.

"The motivation for the intended reshuffle is connected to the Gupta family's interests in acquiring a stake in ArcelorMittal, and their concern that the Department of Trade and Industry, under the leadership of minister Davies ... is setting tough pricing conditions on the sale of steel into the downstream South African manufacturing sector," the SACP said.

Mantashe called on party members who had been approached by "powerful business" to come clean. He said the ANC would deal with the latest Gupta allegation "decisively".

Last night, Vytjie Mentor, a former ANC MP who disclosed earlier this week that the Guptas had offered her the public enterprises ministry in 2010, told Power FM that she informed Zuma that same evening that she had declined the offer and that he ''did not take offence''.

In parliament yesterday, Zuma claimed not to have been influenced by the family. The EFF boycotted the proceedings and the DA walked out. When asked about the Guptas and their influence on his administration, Zuma retorted: "Ask the Guptas or ask Jonas. I have no business with it. I'm in charge. I appoint. No minister has been appointed by me after consulting the Guptas."

The Chamber of Mines said the allegations were of serious concern. "The mining industry is in crisis. The industry requires policy stability and certainty, and fair and transparent implementation of the laws."

Political analyst Tinyiko Malu-leke said that, despite several ANC leaders speaking out about the Guptas' influence, party members would close ranks, especially with the local government elections approaching. "The ANC has in the past gone through very strenuous phases but always emerged intact.

"I'm not sure if we will see more ANC leaders coming out with the same allegations. But there is a possibility that the party will adopt a family mode. In that mode, they could say family rules have been broken and how can we fix it as a family. There would be internal robust debates but the family mode will stop further damaging utterances.''

Additional reporting by Jan-Jan Joubert and Bianca Capazorio