SAFTU Statement on the Gangster State, Unravelling Ace Magashule’s Web of Capture

1 April 2019

Neither SAFTU nor any informed South African can claim to be shocked by the new but old allegations of corruption levelled against the current Secretary General of the ANC. 

We cannot claim to be surprised by the utter political arrogance he and the ANC has displayed in response to these allegations. Ace Magashule was given an opportunity to respond but in a display of the typical ANC arrogance chose to ignore all the questions but to later dismiss them all as the work of the negative media. 

What should worry any reasonable citizen is the utter arrogance that is contained in his statement that instead of responding to the damning allegations he is working on a “landslide victory” of the ANC. 

Of course every poll suggest that the ANC will win the coming general elections. Ace Magashule knows this, and every other leader and the ANC of the once glorious movement of the people knows that too. It is this assurance from the voters that makes Magashule and all of his colleagues able to ignore the questions and later dismiss serious allegations as the negativity of the media. 

SAFTU has maintained that anyone who will vote for the ANC in the coming elections will be endorsing the pillaging and the capture of not just the Free State but also the state capture in its totality. Zondo Commission can do all the work to expose the rot but there is no state to ensure the crooks are brought to book. Otherwise crooks would have long been arrested as a result of the previous exposes contained in the Public Protector’s State of the State Capture, SACC’s betrayal of the dream, Jacques Pauw’s Presidents Keepers, OUTA’s President caught in the act and the millions of the Gupta emails.

Ace Magashule must thank his colleagues in the ANC and the entire alliance that the state has but collapsed. After 25 years of the ANC misrule the police that should have capacity and will to investigate such allegations and bring all the perpetrators to book has been hollowed out. The scorpions were disbanded and the Hawks’ claws have long been removed. The intelligence has been reduced into factional instrument that long lost all its credibility. Our justice cannot deliver on its own without the support of the other arms of justice. No wonder the conviction rate is down to 15% and only about 11% for rape cases. This is what is driving impunity, which has led to political apathy. 

A growing number of South Africans are growing disillusioned by the state of our politics. Already a third of the registered voters did not exercise their right to vote in the last elections. A worrying number of youth simply did not even register to participate.

Too many of our citizens have become pessimistic as they don’t believe that we can ever return to the moral, ethical and selflessness leaders of the past generations of liberation heroes such as Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Robert Sobukwe, Steve Biko, Chris Hani and countless more. 

No wonder the working class is leaving the ANC in droves as demonstrated by the fact that it is no longer in charge of most metros. Two thirds of the ANC voters consist of the rural areas residing in the former Bantustans, which makes a third of the population

SAFTU believes that the greatest error that voters make is to resort to resignation. SAFTU calls on the working class not to continue to vote for the continuation of the arrogance and the indifference of the ANC to the concerns of society. 

Issues by Zwelinzima Vavi, SAFTU General Secretary, 1 April 2019