It is now clear that Sunday Times reporter Mzilikazi wa Afrika's arrest on Wednesday was directly related to an allegedly fraudulent resignation letter purportedly written by Mpumalanga premier David Mabuza.
The letter, dated June 2 2010, is addressed to President Jacob Zuma and asks Zuma to relieve him of his duties with effect from July 17, shortly after the end of the World Cup, in order not to divert attention from the soccer tournament. The document was widely circulated by fax among journalists. After learning that such a fax had been sent to the Sunday Times, Mabuza's office opened a fraud case at the Kabokweni police station, about 30km outside Nelspruit.
One of the recipients of the letter was wa Afrika - a journalist Mabuza's office has accused of portraying the province as a "butcher ground" for political enemies. The reference is to a series of reports about the murder of former Mbombela council speaker Jimmy Mohlala and the assassination of other senior ANC figures in the province. Mohlala had exposed alleged corruption in World Cup tenders, including those for Nelspruit's Mbombela Stadium.
Wa Afrika and this reporter had penned articles about a Mozambican man , identified only as "Josh", who claimed to have been hired as an assassin by a senior Mpumalanga politician. The series also covered the mysterious deaths of several civil servants - including a provincial government spokes-man, Sammy Mpatlanyane, who was shot and killed at his home in January.
Mabuza's silence on the killings and the emergence of an alleged hit list containing names of senior ANC leaders in the province added to the political pressure on the premier on the back of nearly a year of service-delivery protests in the province. Mabuza, a wealthy politician who opts to live on his farm rather than in an official residence, had initially had a smooth run after beating Mbombela mayor Lassy Chiwayo to the post of ANC chairman of Mpumalanga. But this did not last for the man known as "The Hurricane" due to his verbal outbursts and propensity to shout at his staff. In May 2009, after his appointment as premier, service-delivery protests flared in Mpumalanga. Seven local municipalities were affected, including Thaba Chweu in Mashishing (formerly Lydenburg), Mkhondo in Piet Retief, Pixley ka Seme in Volksrust, Emalahleni in Emalahleni (formerly Witbank), Mbombela, Lekwa in Standerton and Dipaliseng in Balfour.
In most areas the protests turned violent with government buildings being razed and police firing rubber bullets at crowds. At the height of the protests, Mabuza's close ally, Raymond Makamo, accused ANC treasurer-general Mathews Phosa of being part of a plot to oust Mabuza by "funding and fuelling" the protests. Phosa is suing Makamo, the Mpumalanga secretary of the SA National Civics Organisation, for R1-million in damages for this. In September last year, a group of disgruntled ANC members organised a press conference to discuss the removal of Mabuza as provincial chairman. The press conference was cancelled at the last minute after some members - claiming to have received threatening phone calls - decided not to attend. The group later wrote to Zuma, asking him to remove Mabuza as premier. "Mr President, may you please relieve our Premier of his duties if you want to see progress in the province," the letter read.
The letter went on to accuse Mabuza of a litany of irregularities while he was MEC for three departments - education, agriculture, and roads and transport. It also accused him of buying cars for local journalists in return for their writing positive stories about him. His spokesman, Mabutho Sithole, dismissed the allegations as "baseless". Nonetheless, in 1998 Mabuza was forced to resign as MEC for education after a forensic investigation found his department had inflated the province's matric pass rate from 46% to 72.5%. About 7000 pupils who had been told they had "passed" their exams were later told they had failed.
Early last year, former provincial ANC Youth League secretary James Nkambule claimed that Mabuza had paid R400000 towards Zuma' s wedding in 2008. Nkambule made the claim in a letter to ANC secretary- general Gwede Mantashe, in which he accused Mabuza of having used his financial position to land the position as premier. N either Zuma nor Mabuza's offices have disputed the payment.
Source: Times Live
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