JUSTICE MALALA | There’s no place for Ace, but he won’t leave with grace, so do an about face

The ANC should keep its hands off Ace Magashule. Whatever you may think of the man, whatever has been said about him, whatever the charges against him, the ANC should keep its hands off him.

The party’s top six leaders spent a large chunk of their meeting last Monday debating whether he should step down. The party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting at the weekend spent more time doing the same. It’s a waste of time.

The man has been charged with corruption linked to various government tenders in the Free State. There are several other charges looming over him related to the notorious Estina dairy farm, where his friends, the Guptas — benefactors and employers of his children — benefited to the tune of hundreds of millions of rand.

Magashule is innocent until proven guilty. The ANC can do nothing about this. The party has apparently got four legal opinions from such heavyweights as Gcina Malindi and Dali Mpofu on the matter. They make many good points — and some bad ones — but they are all useless in this case. That is because Magashule cannot be removed from office legally. The charges and allegations against him are not legally enforceable in the ANC. Right now, the party trying to remove Magashule is like the ANC trying to charge a newborn baby with a crime.

The only person who can remove Magashule from his post is Magashule himself. The Magashule we know will not do so.

In the heat and noise of this “step aside” palaver what has been lost is a recognition of why, in most democracies, people who are charged with serious crimes step down from their positions in the party and their political positions. They do so because they recognise that the allegations against them have brought shame upon their comrades and party. They recognise that day that their remaining associated with their party means the electorate says their beloved party tolerates such behaviour and will punish it come election time.

These things do not exist here. Shame hardly exists in most parts of the ANC. When the party’s former leader, Jacob Zuma, slept with his friend’s vulnerable daughter the party went out full force in his defence. When he was charged with corruption and the incumbent, Thabo Mbeki, “released” him from his duties, the party removed Mbeki and marched in Zuma’s support.

Magashule, as secretary-general of the ANC, has not said a word to the ANC in Mpumalanga about that provincial structure’s reinstatement of a leader while he is awaiting trial for allegedly raping his daughters. A party that was ashamed of such acts would not have waited for public outrage before doing the right thing. Magashule supported Zuma. Why would he not support the Mpumalanga leader?

A sense of shame, a sense that some things are so outrageous that they soil the name of the party and that of one’s comrades, does not exist in most of the ANC. This is the party that keeps Andile Lungisa, a violent character who resorts to throwing water jugs at political opponents’ heads, on its leadership roster. This is the party of Zuma, a scandal machine if ever there was one.

Don’t just blame the ANC. We, the electorate, are just as guilty for this sorry state of affairs. The electorate voted for the ANC in overwhelming numbers in 2009 and 2014. The message was clear to the ANC: crime pays, shamelessness pays, disdain for the electorate pays. The ANC will continue to be led by the Magashules, Zumas and Lungisas of this world because we, the electorate, have rewarded them handsomely for their alleged thuggishness and thievery.

The “reformers” in the ANC, such as President Cyril Ramaphosa, are trying to impose an ethical code on an animal that has lost all semblance of understanding the difference between right and wrong. The horse has bolted.

So what is to be done? Ramaphosa and his comrades should not waste their time debating with Magashule to do “the right thing”. They won’t win. He won’t step aside. They cannot win given the cesspool in which they are playing.

The only way to go is for state institutions to continue to be strengthened to work. At the moment the case against Magashule will take a year to come to court and perhaps two more years from start of trial to conclusion. Then another year or two of appeals. This is outrageous for Magashule (no human being should live under a cloud for so long) and for all of us as citizens. Justice should not be delayed.

A swift resolution of the case would help the ANC make a legal decision: should a leader convicted of a crime continue in office? No.

Then the case would be closed. In the meantime, let Ace Magashule go.

PODCAST | Andile Lungisa talks about prison, continues defending Jacob Zuma

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