Paul Mashatile has one foot in Mahlamba Ndlopfu. As deputy to President Cyril Ramaphosa, he is the front-runner to succeed the incumbent when he finishes his term — or trips on the Phala Phala farm scandal.
According to ANC insiders, Mashatile doesn’t have the patience to wait. His ambitions are an open secret, which is why he says there are people going all out to block him from ascending to the highest position.
This, he says, is why he has to refute reports that question his extravagant lifestyle and relationships with controversial businesspeople. According to a series of News24 reports, Mashatile is close to corruption accused Edwin Sodi, one of the accused in the R255m asbestos tender trial in which Ace Magashule is also an accused.
The accusation is that Mashatile had in the past used one of Sodi’s Cape Town mansions. More shocking is the latest revelation by the media house this week that Mashatile lives in a R37m home in Waterfall City, Midrand, owned by his son in-law, whose company was granted loans of R30m by the Gauteng Partnership Fund — possibly at the time Mashatile was MEC of human settlements. The fund falls under this department.
As more skeletons tumbled out of the closet, Mashatile went on a media charm offensive this week to change the narrative.
He tells the Sunday Times about his good relationship with Ramaphosa, who has assigned him important tasks such chair of the justice, crime prevention and security cluster, rolling out the district development model and chair of the South African Aids Council, among other responsibilities.
Unlike his predecessor David Mabuza, Mashatile has a busy schedule, taking on more tasks and making more public appearances in the past three months. Speculation is rife whether Mashatile and Ramaphosa have an agreement to initiate a smooth handover that would see the president vacate the Union Buildings after next year’s general elections.
Mashatile dismisses with an emphatic “No!” talk of such a deal. Pushed to confirm if he’s ready to grab the baton should Ramaphosa pass it to him, Mashatile gets diplomatic, referring to the ANC processes that determine who becomes head of state.
“Remember, the president of the ANC, who is the president of the country, is the decision of the ANC itself. Should the president not be available for some reason, the ANC will decide what to do. So at the moment there are no problems. The good thing about the ANC is that it has a lot of good leaders, so we won’t have a crisis.”
Mashatile was not the preferred number two of the Ramaphosa faction ahead of the ANC national conference last December. He received his nomination via a rival slate headed by former health minister Zweli Mkhize. After months of dilly-dallying, the Ramaphosa lobby agreed on backing Eastern Cape premier Oscar Mabuyane for the position. A smaller group lobbied for justice minister Ronald Lamola.
It is some members of these groups that Mashatile’s backers suspect of planting negative stories in the media to have him removed.
Mashatile refuses to name the “faceless” people. But close allies say it’s a reference to ANC national executive committee member and Ramaphosa’s former political adviser Bejani Chauke and communications minister Mondli Gungubele.
Chauke is accused of having leaked negative stories about Mashatile to the media. Mashatile’s supporters have shared screengrabs purporting to show conversations between Chauke and another person discussing how to manage the leaks.
Chauke has denied any involvement.
Gungubele, who was one of Ramaphosa’s chief lobbyists ahead of Nasrec, stands accused of encouraging a woman who was allegedly harassing Mashatile. According to a complaint lodged by Keith Khoza, a representative of Mashatile, to the inspector-general of intelligence, Gungubele was heard cheering on Mashatile’s ex Gugu Nkosi when she stormed his Johannesburg home in November last year. Gungubele denied this allegation.
Asked if he was referring to the two when he spoke of “faceless” people, Mashatile said: “I didn’t mention anybody because I don’t know who they are. But we’ve talked with the president about this matter … and he has also done his checking and we’ve concluded there’s no plot.”
However, he later contradicted himself, insisting that there was a plot by people who wanted him out.
Asked why some of his comrades would want him out, he said: “There are always reasons why people don’t want someone.
“But people will always think: ‘This one might not be the best one to implement [the policies they want], let’s get somebody else’.
“But it’s not good to speculate so we decided with the president ‘Let’s leave it’. If you read the president’s statement he says: ‘I appointed the DP, I’m the only one who can remove him and as far as I’m concerned, I have no such plans.’”
So why not ask the president for a formal investigation into the plot?
“No, I don’t want a formal investigation because it’s politics and I understand politics. When you’re a political leader you live in that environment, so it’s OK if people don’t like you. The only thing is you must focus on doing the work and do it correctly. So that’s my position — the president goes out there to sort out service delivery and I’m there on the ground.”
Mashatile seems to have decided to use the negative press to his advantage by projecting himself as a victim of a political conspiracy to put the brakes on his march to Mahlamba Ndlopfu.
The victim card did wonders for former president Jacob Zuma. Following his removal as deputy president in 2005 after the conviction of his former financial adviser Schabir Shaik on corruption charges, Zuma said he was a victim of a conspiracy to stop him for becoming president. He used the same excuse when he was charged for rape and corruption. It was this victim card that carried him to victory at the Polokwane conference in 2007.
However, the victim card did not work for Zweli Mkhize, who said that allegations that he influenced the awarding of a R150m tender to a company run by an associate were an attempt to stop him from contesting at Nasrec.
The deputy president’s supporters are rallying behind him. A “Hands off Mashatile” event is scheduled for July 29 in Pimville, Soweto.
We shouldn’t create dependency, we don’t want to have a welfare state. But in the interim, as we grow the economy and create employment, you look after the most vulnerable through grants
Mashatile is leading a process that is a developing a framework for coalitions and organising a national dialogue of political parties at the University of the Western Cape in Cape Town next month.
Should the ANC dip below 50%, Mashatile is the EFF’s preferred candidate for president. But not everyone wants the EFF. He says the ANC aims for an overwhelming majority and its research shows that this is possible. The party started a process to review its election manifesto last weekend. The party, he says, was inspired by a Stats SA presentation at the weekend that showed that poverty levels have declined. But he admits that the decline was as a result of the provision of grants, not job creation.
“We shouldn’t create dependency; we don’t want to have a welfare state. But in the interim, as we grow the economy and create employment, you look after the most vulnerable through grants. And I know there were many who were saying: ‘This R350 — what can it buy?’ But it’s quite clear ... that it is helping.”
As part of the renewal, Mashatile said the ANC has agreed not to defend any leader accused of wrongdoing, including himself and Ramaphosa.
But if that is the case, why did the ANC vote against the adoption of the section 89 panel report that Ramaphosa had a case to answer about the burglary at Phala Phala?
“It [the ANC’s handling of Phala Phala] was correct, because you will recall that there were a lot of investigations going on, there was the public protector, there was the Reserve Bank, Sars [the South African Revenue Service], so our approach then as the ANC was ‘Let’s allow these to be concluded’ and I think we’re getting there.”
He said should other investigations into Phala Phala find that Ramaphosa has a case to answer, the ANC integrity commission and parliament would look at the matter again.
“If there is overwhelming evidence that requires parliament to relook at the matter, why not? We will respect the integrity of all these processes,” he said.
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