Decoding Fikile Mbalula: John Matisonn

Key topics:Mbalula vows ANC corruption crackdown amid looming local election lossesSheriff seizes ANC assets over unpaid R150m campaign debt from 2019Private probe, faction battles, and scandals keep Mbalula under pressure.Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox at 5:30am weekdays. Register here.Support South Africa’s bastion of independent journalism, offering balanced insights on investments, business, and the political economy, by joining BizNews Premium. Register here.If you prefer WhatsApp for updates, sign up for the BizNews channel here..By John Matisonn.For every fire African National Congress (ANC) secretary general Fikile Mbalula attempts to douse, a couple of new ones seem to flare.A few days ago he promised that the ANC had turned over a new leaf and would be cracking down on corruption after decades when the party mostly turned a blind eye. Mbalula said that there will be no support for members of the ANC who face allegations of corruption, that the party will conduct lifestyle audits for all its members in leadership positions, and that government must urgently make public the outcome of the lifestyle audits for Cabinet Ministers.The latest decision to crack down on corruption was taken at the national working committee meeting, and was followed by a special NEC meeting to prepare for the next local elections where polls predict another ANC rout..Read more:.Factional battles in ANC fuel security chaos and foreign policy drift: Kenneth Mokgatlhe.Those local elections have sparked collective panic in Luthuli House about the party’s prospects in the face of bad poll numbers and the stark contrast between wall-to-wall media coverage of government corruption allegations and the DA’s mayoral candidate Helen Zille sombrely prowling Johannesburg’s dingy, water-logged, pot-holed streets, taking notes. The panic in Luthuli House replays the reaction to the shock defeats in the 2016 local elections that cost the ANC Johannesburg, Tshwane and Nelson Mandela Bay.After those unexpected losses the ANC led a rare, really good parliamentary oversight hearing into vast corruption at the SABC. It exposed the rotten apples, but never did it again. The old ways returned.Poor Mbalula. No sooner had he announced the new crackdown than the sheriff raided Luthuli House, and seized R140,000 worth of furniture, computers and kitchen appliances. These assets were in part payment of a debt of R150million, of which about R37million is still owed, six years after the 2019 general election whose campaign materials created the debt.There were more fires. Next day Afriforum’s prosecution team under Adv Gerrie Nel announced it is considering a private prosecution of Mbalula himself for actions while sports minister. At issue is his 2016 R680,000 Dubai family holiday which was partially paid for by Yusuf Dockrat, a director of Sedgars Sport, which was at the time a supplier to the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC). Mbalula and Dockrat have denied wrongdoing. Mbalula issued a statement announcing that he had instructed his attorneys to “pursue a robust protection” of his rights.The fires continued to flare. His next firefight required that he create distance from Brown Mogotsi, a Mahikeng businessman named at the Madlanga Commission as a political fixer who collected money for ANC events and campaigns.Mbalula addressed allegations that Mogotsi was an associate of Police Minister Senzo Mchunu, who has been accused of using money from businessman Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala to bankroll the ANC’s activities.Mbalula admitted that “our organisation is infiltrated by criminal elements and it extends to cartels”, but dissociated Mogotsi from the ANC. “Mogotsi's membership has expired and he is no longer an ANC member,” he claimed. “I went to the branch, even the province. He's not a member of the ANC. “But Mogotsi took to the SABC to fight back. He said he has proof he is in good standing as an ANC member till the end of October, and promised to testify before the commission to clear his name. The different ANC factions exert influence in the NEC, and their roles are likely to emerge in evidence. Unlike the Zondo Commission, this one seems unlikely to allow a relatively dignified distance by leaders. These factions tie Mbalula’s hand. It’s happened before. In January last year he stuck his neck out and admitted that the ANC had misled the public when it defended then President Jacob Zuma’s abuse of public funds to upgrade his family compound in Nkandla. “We went to Parliament and opened an ad hoc committee and said a swimming pool is a fire pool,” Mbalula said. “The then police minister [Nathi Nhleko] was sweating, seeing that this was a lie, because it is difficult to explain lies.”It was obvious to anyone watching television – real firefighters comically attempting to show that what looked like a larger version of every backyard swimming pool was really there for firefighting. .Read more:.From Rubicon to Ramaphosa: Mbalula’s defiance echoes PW Botha’s warnings - Terence Corrigan.But Mbalula didn’t get away with it. Backlash was swift, and it came from higher up, from Gwede Mantashe, ANC chairperson and one with special standing as a key internal powerbroker for President Cyril Ramaphosa. “I thought he was carried away by you guys,” Mantashe told the media. “He saw your cameras, he got taken away and he said things he should not have said, when you lead you count every word you say.” The balance of power between the firefighters and the arsonists is likely to keep Mbalula on edge for the foreseeable future.

Decoding Fikile Mbalula: John Matisonn

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