2005-11-05,+Zuma+fireworks+compilation

= **Fireworks expected at ANC meeting on Zuma** =

Mbeki, cabinet ministers 'to be probed over alleged abuse of state resources'

The Star, Johannesburg, November 4, 2005

By Moshoeshoe Monare

Kgalema Motlanthe, the ANC secretary-general, has been tasked with facilitating a final report to the party's national leadership following inconclusive talks between President Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma.

The report will be delivered at a meeting of the ANC's national executive committee (NEC), which has been postponed by a week to ensure it does not coincide with Zuma's third court appearance in Durban. The meeting will now be held from November 18 to 19.

This follows Monday's meeting of the party's national working committee (NWC) - a smaller operational body - which meets once every two weeks.

It is believed that ANC president Mbeki and his deputy, Zuma, did not agree on substantive issues in their bilateral talks.

However, they managed to table a compromise report at Monday's NWC meeting.

Whereas Mbeki is said to have again emphasised the respect for constitutional processes, Zuma is believed to have emphasised the political aspect of his trial.

The two men asked the last NEC in September for a chance to discuss so-called substantive issues, after concerns that their lack of communication was tearing the organisation apart.

At their meeting last week, Zuma apparently did most of the talking, culminating in a report drafted by Mbeki.

Motlanthe is expected to come up with a carefully worded report, but this will not necessarily satisfy the Zuma lobby within the NEC and his mass support in the organisation.

Fireworks are expected to explode within the NEC. The Zuma lobby is upbeat about confronting ANC government employees - from the president to cabinet ministers and directors-general - about the alleged abuse of state resources.

The suspension of top spies, including domestic intelligence Director-General Billy Masetlha; the circulation of so-called hoax e-mails; and a subsequent cabinet statement about the whole saga are expected to be the Zuma lobby's main thrust.

An NEC member sympathetic to Zuma said: "Ronnie (Kasrils, the Intelligence Minister,) will have to say why he applies selective investigations. The president, his cabinet and civil servants will have to put their case of how professionalism is being applied."

Another NEC member said: "It might seem that the issue has been quickly quashed, but inside the organisation, it is a different matter."

A senior NEC member said there had to be separation between "what is required of state employees in terms of the laws governing their institutions and what party politics expects of them".

mmon@star.co.za

From: http://www.thestar.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=129&fArticleId=2980348

= **Spy boss to dispute lawfulness of suspension** =

The Star, Johannesburg, November 4, 2005

By Angela Quintal

The battle of the spooks was due to play itself out in the Pretoria High Court today, with suspended spy boss Gibson Njenje challenging his suspension by Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils.

Njenje, the deputy director-general of operations in the National Intelligence Agency, was suspended more than two weeks ago, along with NIA director-general Billy Masetlha and counter-intelligence chief Bob Mhlanga, for alleged illegal spying on ANC businessman Saki Macozoma. It followed an interim report by Inspector-General Zolile Ngcakani.

Ngcakani's terms of reference were later widened to include the origin of hoax e-mails between National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) head Vusi Pikoli, director-general in the Presidency Frank Chikane; as well as between journalists and opposition party leader Tony Leon; as well as fake chatroom discussions between a number of NPA officials, politicians and journalists.

The e-mails appear to be an obvious attempt to smear individuals and feed into conspiracy theories about the arrest of former deputy president Jacob Zuma for corruption.

Kasrils is on record as saying they were "sinister hoax e-mails" reminiscent of the apartheid-era Stratcom strategy of disinformation aimed at sowing confusion.

Ngcakani has yet to complete the investigation.

Faxed copies of the alleged e-mails in The Star's possession appear, on the face of it, to be fake, ridden with errors and crude.

The suspension of the three spy bosses has been widely viewed as the latest fallout in the ANC succession battle, in which both sides stand accused of abusing state resources in the Zuma versus President Thabo Mbeki saga.

Njenje last week gave Kasrils notice that he intended to challenge his suspension.

Njenje said yesterday that, in the light of the media speculation about his court action, he had decided to place on record "that I dispute the validity or lawfulness of my suspension, and I've accordingly instituted urgent proceedings against the minister for intelligence services".

Kasrils, who is opposing the urgent application, said yesterday through his spokesperson, Lorna Daniels: "We live in a democratic country and therefore the NIA officials have the prerogative to challenge the action."

Asked whether the other two were also involved in the court action, she said it was only Njenje. "The minister has at all times acted reasonably, fairly and within the law, and will defend the action. Due process must be allowed, and as such we will not make further comment."

Njenje said that, given his position and the nature of his employment, "I am bound by the secrecy provisions of the Intelligence Services Act and the Protection of Information Act and, accordingly, I have no further comment to make in relation to the facts or merits of the case. Suffice to categorically state that I deny any wrongdoing."

angelaq@incape.co.za

From: http://www.thestar.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=128&fArticleId=2980428



= **Mbeki failing ANC on succession issue** =

The Star, Johannesburg, Letters, November 4, 2005

I have been observing political developments in our country in so far as they relate to the Zuma-Mbeki debacle. The issue of succession has almost become a catastrophic subject within the ANC and its alliance partners.

Succession is not new in the ANC. Prior to Nelson Mandela’s departure, the same debate raised its ugly head, but the wise Mandela took an unequivocal position on the matter which quickly put paid to what was about to become a debacle.

People should recall that a lot of ANC supporters never preferred Thabo Mbeki as their presidential choice. The manner in which he had ascended to power flew in the face of the democratic ideals for which the ANC stood.

However, ANC supporters were asked to observe discipline and respect the decision of the movement, hence we accepted Mbeki. He then went on to prove himself a remarkable leader for the manner in which he led his troops in the government and for his contribution to politics.

Recently he has failed to demonstrate the kind of leadership within the ANC that has come to characterise him the world over. The manner in which succession under his leadership is being handled has revealed the dangerous side to his politics.

Recent developments within the National Intelligence Agency have found fertile ground among those who believed in conspiracy theory. This has drawn Mbeki very close to clandestine and manipulative methods of trying to manage the succession issue (hence the conspiracy theory). It points to the fact that he and his senior colleague are prepared to destroy people’s political careers if they dare to stand in the way of their plans.

It should be asked whether this best describes the ethos of the ANC. The ANC is being turned into an organisation of the chosen few lucky enough to have been born in a place which guarantees all those born in it ascendancy to political hegemony.

This statement is in view of all the victims who have met with Mbeki’s atrocious and furtive defensive campaign: the likes of Mathews Phosa, Cyril Ramaphosa, Tokyo Sexwale and lately Kgalema Motlanthe. Why has he not come up openly with his preferred successor and justify his choice, unless he has a covert agenda. This on its own allows interested people to position themselves for a race that might not be a race, and create all this mischief that has come to characterise the ANC.

I have never supported Jacob Zuma as a presidential choice, but the manner in which he has been treated has made me pay attention to the ills of the ANC and the manner in which it is being led. The insecurities of the president have come back to haunt him, and seem to have eroded his moral conscience to a point where he is prepared to stoop to the lowest standard to achieve his ideals, whatever those are.

The ANC is not an inheritance and will never be used to further personal careers, nor should it be used to settle scores – by Mbeki, Zuma or anyone else. This has to stop, lest we all be caught in this inferno.


 * Sfiso Memela**


 * Johannesburg**

From: http://www.thestar.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=228&fArticleId=2980613

Mail & Guardian, Johannesburg, Letters, //November 04 - November 10 2005//


 * The thrust** of Drew Forrest’s “Mbeki reaps what he sowed” (October 28) is that the closed, top-down leadership style of the exile ANC, brought into our post-1994 democratic framework, has caused the problems we now see in and around the governing party.

Fair point. As he says, the Mass Democratic Movement grew out of the situation at home, from the grassroots and with more decentralised leadership.

So why don’t you and other senior media people give credit to Zwelinzima Vavi and the Congress of South African Trade Unions for speaking out on issues where the ANC follows Mbeki’s poor leadership: Aids, Robert Mugabe and poverty?

Your latest issue is again full of alarming revelations about the killing effects of Aids denialism in the government; every other page has a reference to the BEEneficiaries handed millions in shares and salaries.

Are you really saying that Zuma is the problem? Would you rather have Saki Macozoma, who messed up at Transnet?

Or is there some generalised middle-class fear of ordinary people protesting, busing in from far away, to show their support? Are “the poor” to be objects of sympathy, objects of policy, or actors in their own destiny?


 * //Tony Hall//**