You know a battle is really on when ANC head honchos start talking of each other in animalistic terms.
One bright Sunday morning, in the Spring of 2008, one Jacob Zuma — who may or may not have been infiltrated by “counter-revolutionaries to be the president of the ANC” — told an assembly of the party’s Gauteng cadres that they did not need to bother themselves “with a dead snake”. It was a signal, many believed, indicating that the then president of the country and Zuma's erstwhile comrade, Thabo Mbeki was as good as gone.
Indeed, by the following Sunday morning Mbeki was writing his resignation letter, having received instructions from the Zuma-controlled ANC national executive committee to step down from power.
So when Hogarth this week heard Mbeki, just days before the much anticipated Zuma appearance before the ANC disciplinary committee, speak of a “a wolf in sheep’s skin”, he read it as a signal from the pipe-smoking-one to the ANC to let the axe fall on his former friend.
But since the ANC has postponed the hearing, citing fears of possible violence, Mbeki would have to wait a little longer to see the Wolf of Nkandla finally kicked out by Luthuli House.
Pipe Smoker blows hot
The besieged current ANC leadership may be grateful that Mbeki and other stalwarts of the party have come out of retirement to campaign for the party in the face of a Zuma threat, but they must also be learning every day that the Pipe-Smoking-One has a mind of his own and fears not to speak his mind, even when what he has to say may be embarrassing to some in the NEC.
Take his 30 years of democracy speech in Pretoria this week. They were all applauding him as he gave a breakdown of the crimes against the South African people committed during Zuma's reign. These included attempts to break the back of Sars by removing its top leadership and replacing them with Tom Moyane and other state capture operatives. This strategy included flooding the National Prosecuting Authority with Zuma lackeys who had no interest in serving justice. The awkward moment came when Mbeki mentioned how one Berning Ntlemeza, a cop of no distinguished talent, was appointed to head the Hawks. In the audience sat ANC NEC member Andile Lungisa, who just happens to be Ntlemeza’s nephew.
Ivanka of Nkandla spews poison
With the Wolf of Nkandla under siege from ex-comrades, it fell on his favourite daughter Duduzile to find a way of deflecting attention. The Ivanka of Nkandla took to social media to tell her followers that poison meant to kill her daddy had arrived in KZN. No real details of the plot, but supporters were buying into the story — expressing concern for Baba’s life.
But Hogarth has seen this movie before. Many times. But he’ll cite just a few examples. The first involved the former president’s fourth wife, MaNtuli, who was frogmarched out of Nkandla by the then Spy Minister David Mahlobo on allegations that she had spiked the old man’s Rooibos with a substance emanating from some foreign agency. Second is the claim made in a book Gayton McKenzie wrote when he and JZ were big bras. In it he claims that during a Top 6 meeting at Luthuli House some years ago, the then ANC treasurer-general offered baba kaDuduzane ox liver laced with poison.
The third happened at the home of a prominent BEE mogul who had invited the Nkandla Crooner to his Sandton home for dinner with other top business people. In this case the then ANC president delayed his arrival by several hours due to “intelligence” that he’d be poisoned at the dinner. When he finally arrived, his bodyguards rudely insisted on occupying the kitchen and watching what was being prepared.
Were these stories to be true, it would mean that Baba kaDuduzane holds the world record for escaping death by poisoning many times. Not even Cuba’s Fidel Castro, a direct target of the world’s number one superpower, can claim to have had as many attempts on his life.
Always better with MM
A note landed on Hogarth’s desk drawing our attention to Mmusi Maimane, head of Build One SA, who recently discovered there are poor people at the receiving end of bad service delivery from his former political home, the DA. “Fellow South Africans, there is a tale of two provinces in the Western Cape. One for the affluent, and one for the rest. One where services are delivered timeously and to a high standard, and another where sewage flows through the streets.” Is this not the same guy who was telling us not so long ago that where the DA governs, it governs better?
Baloyi Speaks Up (and away)
Speaking of DA factory faults, what’s with former Midvaal mayor Bongani Baloyi flirting with dictatorial policies? Baloyi, the leader of the Xiluva Party, entered the race for Mampara of the week when he revealed that his party is in favour of scrapping the SA constitution, a proposal made famous by Zuma’s MK Party. Baloyi can find comfort in that his statement was not the dumbest thing Hogarth heard this week, hence he lost the Mampara crown to a more deserving candidate.
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