ANC NWC meeting: Ace Magashule’s refusal to apologise on the agenda

The ANC National Working Committee (NWC) is scheduled to meet on Monday, 23 May 2021, and suspended secretary-general Ace Magashule’s defiance of an instruction by the National Executive Committee (NEC), for him to apologise.

The NEC, the party’s highest decision-making body, had ordered Magashule to eat humble pie and apologise to structures after he unduly issued a suspension letter to ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa

Magashule himself was temporarily given the boot after refusing to step aside – in accordance with a policy directing that members charged for corruption or any other serious crimes should vacate office.

He has since approached the High Court in Gauteng, to challenge the party’s resolution and subsequent suspension, while the ANC plans to oppose his bid. He is one of several ANC members, to whom  the step-aside resolution applies to, as he faces raud and corruption charges in connection with a R255 million asbestos contract which was awarded in 2014 in the Free State, when he was still premier.

In his court papers, Magashule argues that in addition to the resolution and his suspension, the instruction for him to apologise is also unlawful and cannot be enforced.

He maintains that the outcome of his court application will have “a huge and profound impact on the public interest going right up the highest office in the ruling party and the state.”

Ramaphosa ‘surprised’ by Magashule’s court action against ANC

ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa broke his silence on Ace Magashule’s decision to take the party to court, saying they were taken by surprise.

“For the Secretary-General to decide and take his own organisation to court and to question the constitutionality of the very constitution that he’s been implementing and adhering to is a big surprise”

ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa

“This is unprecedented but we will obviously need to go through that. The matter is sub judice and we must let the process run its full course,” Ramaphosa said.

Party factionalism has reared its ugly head in the ANC – particularly as a group aligned to Ramaphosa and another, which is led by Magashule, find themselves at loggerheads over the step-aside resolution.

Magashule had argued that Ramaphosa seeks to remove him from office, to capture Luthuli House, with the aim of claiming victory in his second bid for the party’s presidency.