Former Western Cape premier Ebrahim Rasool's appointment as ambassador to the US will not be reconsidered until allegations that journalists were paid to write favourable reports about him have been proven. Minister of International Relations and Co-operation Maite Nkoana-Mashabane categorically stated yesterday that this decision would not be influenced by the ANC's admission that Rasool's recall was partly because of the allegations. Rasool stood down in 2008 and was redeployed to the Presidency.
ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe told reporters last month that Rasool "was removed (as premier) partly on the basis of this case". He was referring to an affidavit by former Cape Argus reporter Ashley Smith who has claimed he wrote articles favourable to Rasool in return for which money was paid to a communications company in which he had an interest. Smith also said that Rasool had on several occasions discussed with him and then-Cape Argus political editor Joseph Aranes - who had also helped to set up the communications company - a media strategy for Rasool's political battles with rivals in the ANC.
Answering questions in the National Assembly yesterday, Nkoana-Mashabane was tackled by opposition party MPs who suggested her department was lax in appointing Rasool despite doubts about him within the ANC's leadership. "The allegation remains an allegation throughout the proper processes," she said. "So I will not take a quotation from the press conference to be a basis for me to make those considerations. "I can say that we've read about these allegations in the newspapers and the allegations have not been proven, therefore he is presumed innocent until proven otherwise."
The minister cautioned that people should not be judged "if there are due processes of law taking place. When the time comes, and that (issue) comes into play, we will take the necessary action," said Nkoana-Mashabane. She was asked by DA MP Stevens Mokgalapa what criteria and recommendations her department provided the president to select ambassadors and whether Rasool's appointment fitted those criteria. Nkoana-Mashabane made it clear that it remained President Jacob Zuma's prerogative to appoint the heads of mission who represent him abroad. Criteria included the experience and profile of recommended designates, she said.
Mokgalapa then honed in on Mantashe's admission, and was followed by more questions from Cope, IFP and ACDP MPs about the apparent inconsistency in appointing Rasool to such a high post when there had been doubts about his profile in the ruling party. "Don't you think this smacks of double standards?" asked Mokgalapa. The IFP's Koos van der Merwe said he found it "very strange that the minister actually rejects her party's secretary-general's statement. I want to ask the minister and through her the president - is it not wiser and better to wait until the law has taken its course before a person is appointed to such a high position," he said. Cope MP Mluleki George weighed in: "Why do you make such important positions, as you explained, a sanctuary for party members who have done some wrong in the country?"
The minister lashed out, calling them "opportunistic" because they had not opposed Rasool's nomination when it was announced.
Source: IoL
Showing posts with label Ebrahim Rasool. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ebrahim Rasool. Show all posts
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Friday, November 6, 2009
Ozinsky: 'I can't stay silent'
I'm a political activist. I joined the ANC in 1983 when I was 20 and shortly afterwards Umkhonto weSizwe. I was young and passionate and wanted to liberate our country.
In 1987 I was forced to leave the country but returned to Cape Town as part of Operation Vula in 1989. Since then I have served in various leadership structures of the ANC in the Western Cape.
Some say I'm a hard man. Some say the ANC made me hard. I have witnessed many things in the service of our movement. I even had the misfortune to stand next to my provincial secretary, Mcebisi Skwatsha, as so-called ANC members stabbed and attempted to murder him. At all times I have tried to act in a manner that upholds the traditions of honesty, volunteerism and sacrifice that mark the ANC. I know I've made some mistakes. Nevertheless, despite my shortcomings, I have twice been elected by the ANC branches as regional secretary and later twice as deputy provincial secretary.
Since 1994 I've seen many good comrades corrupted by power in government, business or both. Because of this, I took a decision that while I was a public representative I wouldn't get involved in business or be beholden to any interests.
My pursuit over the years as an ANC public representative was and is simple: ensuring effective oversight of government and ensuring that the programmes of the ANC are implemented. It was in trying to do my job that I was confronted by serious misuses of power by comrade Ebrahim Rasool.
Rasool says that Skwatsha and I destroyed him and his premiership, that we gave information to the DA. The SACP provincial secretary implied that we are impimpis. Rasool also says I stopped the building of a hospital in Mitchells Plain, leaving the impression that I had something to do with depriving coloured people of a much-needed amenity. Rasool made this accusation because I opposed his government's selling its most valuable asset, Somerset Hospital, prime real-estate valued at more than R1-billion. He has left me no choice but to defend myself. Unless we are honest about the real problems facing the ANC in the province, the ANC will never be able to regain the trust of the people of the Western Cape. The decision to release the funds for the construction of the hospital was the prerogative of the national treasury. I had no influence over it.
My questioning of the sale was an attempt to ensure that there was no corruption. For halting the transaction the ANC's provincial leadership received widespread praise. It is something of which I am proud, believing that in the process I have helped to look after the best interests of the province and its people. As for Rasool's allegations about leaks to the DA, for which he has provided no evidence, it is as well to consider his own record. Rasool's term as premier can be understood only if you understand his relationship with the media.
In the run-up to the 2003 ANC's list process to prepare for the 2004 national and provincial elections, then community and safety MEC Leonard Ramatlakane, who was a close ally of Rasool, got his department to produce an "intelligence report". This was leaked to the press as an official document. It said there were three factions in the ANC in the Western Cape and that I, a white, was a leader of the "Africanist" faction.
The Cape Argus ran a series of libellous articles based on this document in an apparent campaign to undermine potential rivals to Rasool. Eventually he became premier after an election campaign coordinated by Skwatsha and myself. Rasool became intimately involved in briefing journalists, and at least one senior journalist from the Cape Argus, but I believe more, benefited financially from their proximity to a web of companies contracted by the province. I don't make this allegation lightly; there is proof. The journalist was compelled to resign because of it.
Rasool also met with representatives of companies that were aggrieved by the outcome of a tender process in the then ANC-controlled City of Cape Town. He then leaked information to The Voice and the Cape Argus, which wrote false stories that Skwatsha was involved in a R40-million fraud. At the time Rasool was provincial chairperson of the ANC. Instead of raising the issue with his provincial secretary, Skwatsha, Rasool instructed South African Police Service Captain Piet Viljoen to raid the city council offices. The ANC and its mayor, Nomaindia Mfeketo, were deeply embarrassed by this action. The National Prosecuting Authority declined to prosecute the case. Although Rasool denied in a press conference that it was he who briefed the police to obtain the search warrant, he confessed doing so in a meeting with the national officials of the ANC. Skwatsha's traffic fines, which he had already paid, were also leaked to The Voice.
In 2007 a document from the forensic investigation unit of Rasool's office was leaked to the Mail & Guardian in an attempt to accuse Skwatsha of corruption in the sale of state land. Skwatsha's actions were vindicated by the high court even though Rasool refused him legal assistance. Out of loyalty to the ANC I've not commented on these matters. I now believe that my silence has allowed the damage to continue for too long. While I deny ever giving documents to the DA, I want to confess to giving documents to the Cape Argus that helped expose the Rasool government's relationship with senior journalists.
In 2006 the ANC was asked by the lawyers for the newspaper to provide them with evidence for the allegations that journalists were paid to write stories. A formal decision was taken by the provincial leadership of the ANC that, to protect the best interests of the party, documents in our possession should be handed over. We provided the same evidence to the national leadership of the ANC.
A disciplinary process was undertaken at the paper that led to the quiet resignation of one journalist, but I do not believe that the full story of this extraordinary scandal was ever told. Comrade Rasool, and those media institutions that worked with him, must come clean about who really campaigned to destroy the ANC in the province, and how.
Max Ozinsky is the ANC's chief whip in the Western Cape legislature. He writes on his own behalf
Source: Mail & Guardian Online
In 1987 I was forced to leave the country but returned to Cape Town as part of Operation Vula in 1989. Since then I have served in various leadership structures of the ANC in the Western Cape.
Some say I'm a hard man. Some say the ANC made me hard. I have witnessed many things in the service of our movement. I even had the misfortune to stand next to my provincial secretary, Mcebisi Skwatsha, as so-called ANC members stabbed and attempted to murder him. At all times I have tried to act in a manner that upholds the traditions of honesty, volunteerism and sacrifice that mark the ANC. I know I've made some mistakes. Nevertheless, despite my shortcomings, I have twice been elected by the ANC branches as regional secretary and later twice as deputy provincial secretary.
Since 1994 I've seen many good comrades corrupted by power in government, business or both. Because of this, I took a decision that while I was a public representative I wouldn't get involved in business or be beholden to any interests.
My pursuit over the years as an ANC public representative was and is simple: ensuring effective oversight of government and ensuring that the programmes of the ANC are implemented. It was in trying to do my job that I was confronted by serious misuses of power by comrade Ebrahim Rasool.
Rasool says that Skwatsha and I destroyed him and his premiership, that we gave information to the DA. The SACP provincial secretary implied that we are impimpis. Rasool also says I stopped the building of a hospital in Mitchells Plain, leaving the impression that I had something to do with depriving coloured people of a much-needed amenity. Rasool made this accusation because I opposed his government's selling its most valuable asset, Somerset Hospital, prime real-estate valued at more than R1-billion. He has left me no choice but to defend myself. Unless we are honest about the real problems facing the ANC in the province, the ANC will never be able to regain the trust of the people of the Western Cape. The decision to release the funds for the construction of the hospital was the prerogative of the national treasury. I had no influence over it.
My questioning of the sale was an attempt to ensure that there was no corruption. For halting the transaction the ANC's provincial leadership received widespread praise. It is something of which I am proud, believing that in the process I have helped to look after the best interests of the province and its people. As for Rasool's allegations about leaks to the DA, for which he has provided no evidence, it is as well to consider his own record. Rasool's term as premier can be understood only if you understand his relationship with the media.
In the run-up to the 2003 ANC's list process to prepare for the 2004 national and provincial elections, then community and safety MEC Leonard Ramatlakane, who was a close ally of Rasool, got his department to produce an "intelligence report". This was leaked to the press as an official document. It said there were three factions in the ANC in the Western Cape and that I, a white, was a leader of the "Africanist" faction.
The Cape Argus ran a series of libellous articles based on this document in an apparent campaign to undermine potential rivals to Rasool. Eventually he became premier after an election campaign coordinated by Skwatsha and myself. Rasool became intimately involved in briefing journalists, and at least one senior journalist from the Cape Argus, but I believe more, benefited financially from their proximity to a web of companies contracted by the province. I don't make this allegation lightly; there is proof. The journalist was compelled to resign because of it.
Rasool also met with representatives of companies that were aggrieved by the outcome of a tender process in the then ANC-controlled City of Cape Town. He then leaked information to The Voice and the Cape Argus, which wrote false stories that Skwatsha was involved in a R40-million fraud. At the time Rasool was provincial chairperson of the ANC. Instead of raising the issue with his provincial secretary, Skwatsha, Rasool instructed South African Police Service Captain Piet Viljoen to raid the city council offices. The ANC and its mayor, Nomaindia Mfeketo, were deeply embarrassed by this action. The National Prosecuting Authority declined to prosecute the case. Although Rasool denied in a press conference that it was he who briefed the police to obtain the search warrant, he confessed doing so in a meeting with the national officials of the ANC. Skwatsha's traffic fines, which he had already paid, were also leaked to The Voice.
In 2007 a document from the forensic investigation unit of Rasool's office was leaked to the Mail & Guardian in an attempt to accuse Skwatsha of corruption in the sale of state land. Skwatsha's actions were vindicated by the high court even though Rasool refused him legal assistance. Out of loyalty to the ANC I've not commented on these matters. I now believe that my silence has allowed the damage to continue for too long. While I deny ever giving documents to the DA, I want to confess to giving documents to the Cape Argus that helped expose the Rasool government's relationship with senior journalists.
In 2006 the ANC was asked by the lawyers for the newspaper to provide them with evidence for the allegations that journalists were paid to write stories. A formal decision was taken by the provincial leadership of the ANC that, to protect the best interests of the party, documents in our possession should be handed over. We provided the same evidence to the national leadership of the ANC.
A disciplinary process was undertaken at the paper that led to the quiet resignation of one journalist, but I do not believe that the full story of this extraordinary scandal was ever told. Comrade Rasool, and those media institutions that worked with him, must come clean about who really campaigned to destroy the ANC in the province, and how.
Max Ozinsky is the ANC's chief whip in the Western Cape legislature. He writes on his own behalf
Source: Mail & Guardian Online
Monday, September 29, 2008
Western Cape ANC denies obvious rift
The entire Western Cape ANC is denying that it faces a major rift along political fault lines between its former chair, James Ngculu, and former premier, Ebrahim Rasool, on the one hand and its newly elected chair, Mcebisi Skwatsha, on the other.
Last week the ANC in the province held its long-awaited provincial conference and the Skwatsha grouping -- seen as strongly pro-Zuma -- made a clean sweep of the top five positions by unanimously electing Skwatsha as party chairperson, Premier Lynne Brown as deputy chair, Sipho Kroma as secretary, Max Ozinsky as deputy secretary and Songezo Mjongile as treasurer.
In contrast with other recent provincial conferences of the ruling party there were no threats, intimidation or mayhem, but about 42% of branches (86 of 205) boycotted the conference claiming that they were deliberately excluded because they supported Lerumo Kalako for the position of chairperson.
Kalako is seen as a Thabo Mbeki supporter and a staunch backer of now ousted Ngculu. He told the Mail & Guardian on Thursday: "I have nothing to say. It's best if you phone Skwatsha and Ozinsky for their comments." Although a member of the ANC's provincial executive committee, recently ousted premier Rasool did not attend the conference either. He told the local media that he did not want to cause further divisions in the organisation.
On the first day of the conference regional secretary Mbulelo Ncedana and about 500 of his supporters held an alternative meeting in Langa, where Ngculu addressed them after delivering his formal conference address. On both sides of the political divide ANC members deny that the boycott of the conference marks an imminent split in the organisation. Garth Strachan, Western Cape finance minister, said the ANC has 54 000 signed-up members in the province, of whom about 400 were disaffected. "These people chose to step outside due process and they're bringing the name of the ANC into disrepute. They're doing the opposition's work for them and we don't see this as signifying a split in the ANC." Strachan is adamant that the ANC's national leadership, under the chairmanship of NEC member Fikile Mbalula, listened to the concerns of the disgruntled members.
Ncedane sent a memorandum to the national executive committee claiming that Skwatsha and his supporters manipulated branches attending the conference to ensure a Skwatsha victory. Both Strachan and Ozinsky denied this. "When you're a democrat you have to abide by the democratic process. You can't cry foul and boycott the process because you don't like the majority vote," Ozinsky said. "Honestly, we're worried about the divisions in the province. It's worrying if senior provincial leaders are playing a factional and divisive role with the intention of disrupting the highest organ of the organisation in the province, namely the conference."
Regional executive committee member Yengwayo Kutta said he and others decided to boycott the conference because "there had been a clear attempt to exclude branches that supported Kalako as the ANC chair". "Eighty-five branches out of 205 are not participating because we're unhappy with the process. Branches in good standing were excluded because of political interference. I myself believe that the conference is fraudulent," Kutta said. "We want the national leadership to listen to our concerns and then we would like another, more inclusive, conference to be held."
Source: Mail & Guardian Online
Last week the ANC in the province held its long-awaited provincial conference and the Skwatsha grouping -- seen as strongly pro-Zuma -- made a clean sweep of the top five positions by unanimously electing Skwatsha as party chairperson, Premier Lynne Brown as deputy chair, Sipho Kroma as secretary, Max Ozinsky as deputy secretary and Songezo Mjongile as treasurer.
In contrast with other recent provincial conferences of the ruling party there were no threats, intimidation or mayhem, but about 42% of branches (86 of 205) boycotted the conference claiming that they were deliberately excluded because they supported Lerumo Kalako for the position of chairperson.
Kalako is seen as a Thabo Mbeki supporter and a staunch backer of now ousted Ngculu. He told the Mail & Guardian on Thursday: "I have nothing to say. It's best if you phone Skwatsha and Ozinsky for their comments." Although a member of the ANC's provincial executive committee, recently ousted premier Rasool did not attend the conference either. He told the local media that he did not want to cause further divisions in the organisation.
On the first day of the conference regional secretary Mbulelo Ncedana and about 500 of his supporters held an alternative meeting in Langa, where Ngculu addressed them after delivering his formal conference address. On both sides of the political divide ANC members deny that the boycott of the conference marks an imminent split in the organisation. Garth Strachan, Western Cape finance minister, said the ANC has 54 000 signed-up members in the province, of whom about 400 were disaffected. "These people chose to step outside due process and they're bringing the name of the ANC into disrepute. They're doing the opposition's work for them and we don't see this as signifying a split in the ANC." Strachan is adamant that the ANC's national leadership, under the chairmanship of NEC member Fikile Mbalula, listened to the concerns of the disgruntled members.
Ncedane sent a memorandum to the national executive committee claiming that Skwatsha and his supporters manipulated branches attending the conference to ensure a Skwatsha victory. Both Strachan and Ozinsky denied this. "When you're a democrat you have to abide by the democratic process. You can't cry foul and boycott the process because you don't like the majority vote," Ozinsky said. "Honestly, we're worried about the divisions in the province. It's worrying if senior provincial leaders are playing a factional and divisive role with the intention of disrupting the highest organ of the organisation in the province, namely the conference."
Regional executive committee member Yengwayo Kutta said he and others decided to boycott the conference because "there had been a clear attempt to exclude branches that supported Kalako as the ANC chair". "Eighty-five branches out of 205 are not participating because we're unhappy with the process. Branches in good standing were excluded because of political interference. I myself believe that the conference is fraudulent," Kutta said. "We want the national leadership to listen to our concerns and then we would like another, more inclusive, conference to be held."
Source: Mail & Guardian Online
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)