Suspended ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule wants President Cyril Ramaphosa to apologise to him should the court overturn his suspension and confirm the suspension of the ANC president.
This is in a letter Magashule wrote to his deputy, Jessie Duarte, after the national executive committee confirmed Magashule’s suspension and ordered him to apologise to Ramaphosa for sending a letter of suspension to the president.
The letter forms part of the annexures that accompany papers filed in court by the ANC in response to Magashule’s urgent application to have his suspension overturned. Magashule was responding to Duarte’s letter that informed him of the NEC decision that he should retract the letter suspending Ramaphosa and apologise or face disciplinary action.
In response, Magashule wrote to Duarte: “In the unlikely event that the court finds that the suspension was indeed unlawful and that the conduct of the president and/or the NEC is legally justified and was in all the circumstances lawful, then I will readily consider tendering the demanded apology within 48 hours of such a find.”
Should the court find otherwise, I will similarly expect an apology from the ANC president.
— Ace Magashule
“Should the court find otherwise, I will similarly expect an apology from the ANC president.”
Magashule is involved in a legal battle with the ANC, where he is challenging the party’s decision to suspend him for failing to voluntarily step aside in the wake of corruption charges levelled against him in court. He also alleges that the step-aside rule was trumped up to deal specifically with him.
He furthermore asked that the court make a ruling on whether his letter attempting to suspend Ramaphosa was lawful or not.
His letter to Ramaphosa came after the party’s national working committee decided that those who failed to voluntarily step aside must be sent letters of suspension. The NWC, however, said the letters must only be sent to those who face charges of corruption or other serious crimes. And as he faces a raft of corruption charges relating to the R255m asbestos removal tender in the Free State, Magashule was directly affected by the suspensions.
In retaliation, he sent a letter to Ramaphosa informing him that he was also suspended.
The ANC subsequently demanded that Magashule retract the letter and apologise for what they said was unwarranted and unauthorised.
The party told Duarte to write to Magashule informing him that his apology was expected in 48 hours, failing which, disciplinary action will be considered. But instead of apologising, he wrote back to Duarte telling her that the matter was now sub-judice.
In the same breath, Magashule says he would consider apologising should the court declare his letter to Ramaphosa unlawful, but that he would demand the same of Ramaphosa should the court uphold his letter.
He is confident that the court will rule in his favour, as he argues that as secretary-general it was his duty to suspend Ramaphosa as per the NWC’s decision.
In laying out the ANC’s case that Magashule had ample time to step aside, thus avoiding suspension, Duarte also reveals in the court papers that Magashule was advised to voluntarily step aside in a meeting between her, Magashule and the party’s treasurer-general Paul Mashatile.
In that meeting, Duarte said, Magashule did not immediately say whether he would consider their advice, but only told them that he would “sleep” on it.
“Our advice to him was that he could use that time to focus fully on his upcoming trial and in that way he would not lose his position as the SG of the ANC. He would then use the criminal trial to clear his name so that he could come back to the party afterwards,” Duarte says.
“He informed us that he would sleep on the matter and come back to us. He never did.”
Duarte also reveals that the ANC’s top six officials, who include herself, Ramaphosa, Mashatile and others, met Magashule at the president’s residence in Johannesburg, where Magashule reported back on the outcomes of his consultations with the past ANC leaders.
He had asked that before the party implements the step aside rule and subsequent suspension, he should be given 30 days to consult with former party leaders including Thabo Mbeki, Jacob Zuma, Kgalema Motlanthe and Mathews Phosa.
According to Duarte, Magashule informed them that Motlanthe had told him the party should “take a step back and reflect on recent events that had transpired which had led to his suspension and how that process was conducted”.
Zuma told Magashule that the step aside rule was applied inconsistently and “possibly along factional lines”, while Mbeki reminded him that when the party decided it was time for him to step down as president, he did so without any resistance.
