Justice Malala
Africa-Press – South-Africa. We need to talk about Deputy President Paul Mashatile.
Mashatile’s sudden declaration that he lives in a sumptuous house in Constantia, Cape Town, after years of dodging disclosure of the property and its provenance must force the ANC, and South Africa, to confront itself and the pedigree of people it refers to as public representatives. The latest news reminds the country that it walked, just 20 years ago, into a corrupt and shameful political period by electing to high office someone drenched in scandal.
If a political party repeats a mistake just 20 years after its previous one, then it is not an error. It’s a key part of the culture and character of that political party. The corrupt acts are now ingrained. They are in the bones. It says to the citizenry that the party has embraced those corrupt activities as its operating procedure because they work for it and its leaders.
In the mid-2000s many ANC insiders ignored the warning lights that were flashing over Jacob Zuma, deputy president of the country, as a court found his friend guilty of bribing him. Zuma had many benefactors and entanglements which made him potentially susceptible to being blackmailed or used for corrupt activities were he to become president of the country.
The ANC enthusiastically and bone-headedly gifted him with the presidency of the country. Accompanied by a coterie of acolytes, they sold the country’s government departments, state owned enterprises and other entities to their friends, the Guptas and others, while breaking or nearly collapsing everything from SAA to Transnet as well as key crime-fighting institutions such as the National Prosecuting Authority, the Scorpions and the Hawks, and many others.
The ANC is possibly walking South Africa into yet another disaster with its eyes wide open unless it addresses and fixes the issues around Mashatile, the man most likely to be its next leader. If the electorate allows the ANC to win without fixing its internal processes of dealing with corruption allegations, let’s not shed too many tears down the line when the same corruption, incompetence and poor economic results engulf us.
You will have been following the drip-drip-drip of Mashatile’s scandals for years. He has been accused of living high on the hog in luxury properties owned by his son-in-law’s company and by other relatives. Last week Mashatile listed two properties (one in Constantia, Cape Town, and another in Waterfall, Midrand) in the latest Parliamentary Register of Members’ Interests. It raises eyebrows when you declare two luxury properties with a combined value of R65m while earning just over R3m a year. The question is simple: who is paying you, why are they paying you, and what do they expect or have been promised in return?
Mashatile has consistently said there are no issues here: these properties belong to his son-in-law, his son, or other relatives. A niggling detail is that these individuals have received loans from government departments over which Mashatile has held sway or has had indirect influence.
Last week, SABC reporter Simphiwe Makhanya asked Mashatile direct questions about his declaration to parliament. Instead of a thoughtful response showing due regard for the seriousness of the allegations against him, Mashatile implied that those who question him, an elected representative of the people, were being disrespectful or misguided. He then said he merely lives at the properties, but they belong to his relatives. Tellingly, he then told the reporter he was pushing development and “not to talk about my property in Cape Town”.
I am sure it’s a slip of the tongue.
While the media and civil society have asked Mashatile direct questions about his houses and the need for accountability, the ANC has been quiet. It has not pressed the deputy president to deal openly and directly with the growing scandal.
That may come back to bite it in the behind. It may not be always obvious to the party, but the solid ANC voter base of 2004, when it won 69% of the vote, has totally collapsed. Most of those voters have stopped turning up at the polls. In 2004 turnout was 76.7% and in 2024 it was 58.6%. The ANC share of the vote has collapsed to just 40% of that meagre turnout. How the ANC thinks it can win the elections in four years’ time by fielding a potentially scandal-soaked candidate is perplexing.
What would be even more worrying is if the South African voter chose to give the ANC its vote if Mashatile is on the ballot without having properly explained what these financial clouds hanging over him mean. Like the ANC of 2007, and the voter of 2009, South Africa would be walking into a disaster with its eyes wide open.
The likelihood of an ANC win is low. The ANC is headed for a vote take of below 30%. What will be fascinating is whether that disillusioned vote goes to the even more corruption-soaked MK Party, or to cleaner parties.
Source: TimesLIVE
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