The survival of scandal-prone former president Jacob Zuma – nicknamed “phunyuka bemphethe” (the ultimate survivor) – could not have existed had he not been assisted by one of the most senior politicians within the ANC.
This became increasingly evident on Tuesday night during testimony at the state capture inquiry by parliament’s former deputy speaker and speaker Baleka Mbete, who was not the only one accused of enabling Zuma.
Others who alleged to have done so include the likes of longtime SACP general secretary Blade Nzimande, ANC national chairperson Gwede Mantashe, former Cosatu boss Zwelinzima Vavi and former ANCYL strongman Julius Malema – catapulting Zuma to the ANC top job in 2007 despite the scandal surrounding him at the time.
It contained scary things that were being claimed. I had to apply my mind for hours, and I took a decision. Parliament is very busy, and I must take this dramatic document and say parliament must take this into its programme – on what basis?
— Baleka Mbete
But Mbete’s jaw-dropping admission on Tuesday takes the cake. She bluntly admitted to ignoring the arms deal whistleblower report. Zuma is standing trial today facing corruption, fraud and racketeering charges, among other things.
Mbete, in an unprovoked attempt to save face and clear her name from the havoc of the Zuma years, asked to make an opening statement.
Her wish was granted by the inquiry, only for the statement to be an unsolicited recitation and boasting escapade of her struggle credentials, from going into exile in the 1970s, to becoming first secretary-general of the ANCWL after the unbanning of the ANC and becoming “the first female” national chairperson of the ANC parent body in Polokwane, where Zuma was elected president in 2007.
It would not take long for Mbete to make a startling admission, placing her at the centre of those who protected Zuma, when she testified that she deliberately ignored a whistleblower report into the controversial arms deal of the late 1990s.
That is the same arms deal for which Zuma is accused number one in an ongoing criminal trial.
Mbete boldly said she refused to act on the whistleblower report that was slipped under her house door when she was acting speaker of the national assembly.
She apparently ignored it because she did not know who wrote it and would only act if the authors revealed themselves, a moment that would have been a golden opportunity for her to gather intelligence for political self-preservation.
This she said at a commission whose chairperson, deputy chief justice Raymond Zondo, has on more than five occasions emphasised the importance of protecting whistleblowers.
“You do not just take something because someone has said it and you plunge it into the space of parliament,” said Mbete.
“I want to tell you, chairperson, of an occasion when I was deputy speaker. The speaker was away, and I was acting speaker. A document was slid under my door. As it turned out, when I read it it was about the famous arms deal whose court case was postponed again this week. That document had no signature. It had no author.
“But yes, it contained scary things that were being claimed. I had to apply my mind for hours, and I took a decision. Parliament is very busy, and I must take this dramatic document and say parliament must take this into its programme – on what basis? Who is the author? And I just did not act on it.
“I am saying if another opportunity like that happened, I would still decide [the same]. I will not take a document that is a lot of rumour, drama and very concerning. But why is there no author? The person who slid it under my door must come and then I will act on it.”
With Mbete’s non-action, Zuma and his co-accused in the matter, including ex-convicts ANC NEC member Tony Yengeni and former Zuma financial adviser Shabir Shaik, borrowed time as free men.
Her moves as parliament’s most powerful official in protection of Zuma did not end there.
It was also under Mbete that parliament dismissed multiple requests by opposition parties to probe the Gupta family’s influence of Zuma and ultimately his government.
Mbete’s parliament ignored them, hiding behind ANC parliamentary numerical superiority and having its national party official as speaker – herself.
Mbete’s enabling of Zuma’s survival ran deep. She was the speaker during the time the national assembly endorsed a whitewash ad hoc committee report clearing Zuma of the non-security upgrade liability for his private KwaDakwadunuse homestead in Nkandla.
It took then public protector Thuli Madonsela to hold Zuma accountable, and the courts forced him to pay back the money for non-security upgrades at his private home.
Mbete’s excuse is that as speaker she did not have the powers to have a final say on issues. This despite her legislated powers to decide what matters parliament entertains and those it does not.
It sanctioned, with her approval, the establishment of the cover-up Nkandla ad hoc committee during a time when she was one of Zuma’s closest allies as national chairperson of the party and the Nkandla pensioner was president.
“Every MP comes from a political party space. That we must now pretend this one person ... the president himself is a president of their party. Suddenly somebody pretends there is a horrible thing that is happening, that a [national] chairperson of a party is the speaker of parliament. That is how it is all over the world,” said Mbete.
“I am strongly not agreeing with the notion that the speaker can tell. Why must you put the speaker in a position of determining what is right and the extent to which it is right [when parliament has many decision-making structures]?”
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