Circulating message claims Ace Magashule wants to be President

743
Circulating message claims Ace Magashule wants to be President
SG: A message circulating on WhatsApp groups claims that the faction opposed to the Ramaphosa faction wants to have secretary-general Ace Magashule sworn in as president. PICTURE BY Africa-News-27.

The message is being circulated by the Ramaphosa faction to stop the “devious” plan by the other faction in a highly divided ANC.


A message doing the rounds on the social network claims that ANC national secretary Ace Magashule wants to be President and the NDZ camp was working for him to be nominated.

It says the faction wants to remove President Cyril Ramaphosa and get the controversial Free State strongman as leader of the country. 

It’s unclear where this puts deputy president DD Mabuza who is also believed to be having an interest in the same seat. 

The message is being circulated on WhatsApp groups and it says “reliable sources” within the ANC say the NDZ faction “is working hard on the ground to depose Cyril Ramaphosa after the elections by nominating Ace Magashula for president”. 

“At the forefront of this devious scheme are all those who have been implicated in corruption through the various commissions currently underway,” reads the message. 

ALSO SEE: Fear that ANC factions may use 8 May results to remove Ramaphosa 

“Spread the message and expose them,” said the message, which the 013NEWS reporter found on an SACP WhatsApp group. 

The SACP and Cosatu are some of Ramaphosa’s staunchest supporters and had made sure he emerged as ANC President on 18 December 2017, narrowly defeating Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma in that hotly contested 54th national conference in Nasrec.

A month ago, EFF leader Julius Malema told journalists that Ramaphosa’s opponents want to use the June 2020 national general council (NGC) to get rid of the wealthy SA politician. 

“They are scared of the very serious prospect for jail time if Cyril Ramaphosa remains a President. This threat has been echoed by Julius Malema and it is real,” the message reads. 

The top 6 of the ANC is believed to be divided into 3 groups – chairman Gwede Mantashe is allegedly with Ramaphosa, Magashule is with his deputy Jessie Duarte and Mabuza with treasurer Paul Mashatile.

ALSO RELATED: Mabuza: ‘Don’t use my name to divide ANC’

A week ago the division in the ANC went public when Magashule said it was “nonsense” of campaign head Fikile Mbalula to say the ANC would have got around 40% if Ramaphosa was not its leader. 

The ANC got 57.5% during the 8 May 2019 general elections, a decline from the 62% it received in 2014 while President Jacob Zuma led it.

“That’s what I said, I didn’t say Cyril led the campaign alone. He was not responding to Mbalula, he was responding to the figment of his imagination, not me. He thought that I said Ramaphosa alone led the campaign, I didn’t say that, I said he was a game changer because he was an important piece of the campaign,” Mbalula said after Magashule had said that the ANC does not work on individualism. Therefore, the suggestion that Ramaphosa helped the ANC is “nonsense”.

“Imagine if I were to say as Ace Magashule I campaigned for the ANC, what is that to the ANC? The ANC doesn’t work like that. 

(edited by ZK)

Send tip-offs to editor@013.co.za