You, the reader, have spoken loud and clear. With over 10,000 votes cast, your Mampara of the Year 2021 is none other than suspended ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule
He took the coveted title 14 percentage points clear of his nearest rival. It has been an annus horribilis for the former Free State strongman.
Last year the National Prosecuting Authority slapped him with a raft of charges over a rotten asbestos-eradication tender in his home province, then this year his world crumbled. The ANC national executive committee (NEC) — uncharacteristically for them — invoked the step-aside rule and iced him out of the party while he was facing criminal charges.
Who can forget the first NEC meeting after he was suspended, when he was unceremoniously booted off the Zoom call by party chair Gwede Mantashe?
Results from the online poll we ran asking you to pick your Mampara of the Year from a list of 10 contenders came in on Thursday morning, and Magashule received 27% of the votes.
We specifically took issue with him for suggesting the constitution did not matter when he sprang to his hero Jacob Zuma’s defence. Zuma had been accused of disrespecting the law by defying a Constitutional Court order to appear before the Zondo commission. Magashule and Zuma truly deserve one another.
2. IQBAL SURVÉ
The Independent Media supremo made a late surge on Wednesday night to claim second place.
What can we say about this narcissist that hasn’t been said before? The man has run a once respected newspaper group to the ground and he refuses to give back billions belonging to the Public Investment Corporation, money that was invested irregularly in a poor ICT outfit he owns called Ayo Technology Solutions.
Thinking he couldn’t stoop any lower, Survé proved us wrong. He passionately sprang to the defence of a report in one of his newspapers that claimed a Tembisa woman had given birth to 10 babies, even though the hospitals in question and an entire government could find no evidence of such a pregnancy or birth. He goes home with 13.2% of the vote.
3. FIKILE MBALULA
In third place is the minister of transport, who calls himself “Mr Fix”, yet our trains are broken beyond repair.
He has a huge following on Twitter, where he spends time mostly spewing hot air. In a particularly embarrassing moment, he had to quickly delete a tweet suggesting that the Covid vaccine might not be that effective.
With 12.8% of the votes, we advise him to focus on the job at hand — that of actually fixing our broken public transport — or have the president relieve him of this important portfolio so that he can spend all his free time playing on social media.
4. JOHN STEENHUISEN
The tone-deaf DA leader has a lot of maturing to do if he’s to successfully run a serious political party.
In the corridors of DA power in parliament, he is said to have surrounded himself with yes-men and women who are too loyal to tell him the truth.
He embarrassed himself greatly when his party conceptualised a horrible poster campaign in Phoenix, trying to score cheap election points off a painful episode in which people died during the looting.
The man just cannot read the room, and 12.4% of you thought he was worthy of the Mampara of the Year title.
5. MZWANELE MANYI
Jacob Zuma’s cheerleader should be focusing on the affairs of his own party, a two-seat outfit called the African Transformation Movement, but he spends all his time obsessing about the ANC.
In his pathetic attempts at spin, he questioned Constitutional Court judgments that go against Zuma simply because one or two judges dissented. Almost 10% of our readers voted for the worst spin doctor on the planet.
6. MOGOENG MOGOENG
Many didn’t trust the outgoing chief justice when he was originally appointed to the top judicial post because of his crass remarks in previous judgments. But he proved people wrong and became part of important judgments that saved democracy during state capture.
However, his ultraconservative, reactionary persona has since re-emerged. He nearly got himself impeached for praising modern-day Israel, confusing it with the biblical version. Recently he told a crowd that he could cure HIV⁄Aids through prayer. Time for this one to go back to the church.
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