‘Once I’m nominated, nobody can stop me’: Magashule ‘ready to stand’ at ANC national elective conference

26 September 2022 - 12:00
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Suspended ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule says the corruption case he is facing is a tactic to prevent him contesting party positions in December. File photo.
Suspended ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule says the corruption case he is facing is a tactic to prevent him contesting party positions in December. File photo.
Image: VELI NHLAPO

“Once I am nominated ... nobody can stop me.”

There are the words of suspended ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule, who said he will be nominated and elected during the party’s 55th national elective conference in December.

Magashule was addressing media outside the Bloemfontein high court at the weekend. He said despite his suspension, the ANC “is the movement of the people” and he will “be there”. 

“Once I’m nominated, I’m nominated. Nobody can stop me,” he said.

“I joined the ANC voluntarily. I was there in the struggle. It’s not a monopoly of any individual. The ANC is the movement of the people. I’m there, my brother. I will be there today and tomorrow and any other day.”

Magashule's insistence to partake in the conference despite being affected by the Step Aside Rule was bolstered by comments by presidential candidate Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma during an interview with the SABC.

Dlamini-Zuma insisted that the December conference must look into reviewing the Step Aside Rule which she believed perpetuated injustice since elected leaders were removed from their positions while their cases take long to conclude.

The minister of Cogta cited former MEC in Mpumalanga and the provincial treasurer of the ANC Mandla Msibi who lost his government job thanks to the Rule, only for the case against him to be dismissed when his position in government was already taken by somebody else.  

Magashule was suspended by the ruling party last year after his refusal to willingly step aside following corruption charges brought against him relating to a multimillion-rand Free State asbestos eradication tender awarded during his tenure as premier.

He said the corruption case he is facing is a tactic to prevent him contesting ANC positions in December. 

The case has been postponed to January 20 2023. 

“They keep postponing the case quite deliberately because the intention is to kill the ANC. I am saying to members of the ANC throughout the country, do not allow the ANC to be killed,” said Magashule.

ANC spokesperson Pule Mabe last week said those affected by the step-aside rule will not be eligible to contest any position, even if the party’s national conference in December repeals the rule. 

Mabe said should such a decision be taken, it would only be effective after the conference.

He said resolutions of the conference are not retrospective, and if the step-aside rule is repealed, it will take effect in the next conference.

“If you take a resolution in a conference, its application only happens in the next conference. If you resolve we are discarding the step-aside rule because either we believe it is not being implemented consistently or whatever view might hold, it means the application of that resolution will only be at the next national conference because we resolved on step aside at the 54th national conference.

“When did we apply it? As soon as we left the conference — because if we applied it at the conference, it meant we would have had to call any cadre who was in court at the time and ask them to step aside. We didn’t do that because we apply resolutions afterwards.”

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