With only months before the national elections, some political figures are making big moves. Neil de Beer – who spent 32 years in the African National Congress (ANC), but left in disgust to form the United Independent Movement (UIM), a party that has joined the multi-party charter to oust the ruling ANC – speaks to BizNews about how the “United Front” formed by the new political parties of former President Jacob Zuma (MK) and former Free State Premier and ANC SG Ace Magashule (ACT – African Congress for Transformation) will damage the ANC, but bolster the Multi-Party Charter. “…every day that another group splinters from the ANC…that 50 plus 1 becomes much more realistic to obtain,” he says. De Beer talks about the Economic Freedom Front’s (EFF) need for a “bigger brother”; the retirement of Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma whose Presidential ambitions were narrowly thwarted by Cyril Ramaphosa; the election prospects of the Multi-Party Charter; the rumoured election date of 22 May; and the strategy to beat the ANC’s election-winning trick of bussing in millions to vote. He also deals with the “dark side” of politics that has kept Police Minister Bheki Cele in his job – despite a clear lack of qualifications and performance. – Chris Steyn
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Timestamps
00:00 – Introduction
01:02 – United front of MK and ACT
02:29 – The effect that the UIM will have on the EFF
05:34 -Dlamini Zuma’s resignation
06:11 – Multi-Party Charter prospects
09:53 – Multi-Party meeting
12:46 – Why hasn’t President Cyril gotten rid of the Minister of police?
16:40 – Rumours of the election being set for 22 May
18:24 – Call to postpone the elections
20:42 – How would the Multi-Party Charter counter?
26:17 – Conclusion
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Highlights from the interview
___STEADY_PAYWALL___
The “United Front” of Zuma and Ace:
“…it is absolutely a breaking away again of another segment within this depleted and failing liberation movement after 112 years. And I must tell you, this is not at all a surprise to me. This has to come, this had to move. It was just where would J-Z and his supporters place themselves. And there was no way that it would be the ANC. It had to be a breakaway faction. And I’m telling you, they are causing tantamount damage to the ANC. And I will assure you, we’ll take a big segment of the voters.”
The EFF’s need for a “bigger brother”:
“…(for) the EFF to become something significant within the politics of this country, the governance of this country, they need a bigger brother. They are not the bigger brother. They will never in my lifetime currently, which I hope I’m spared to see, will ever become the government of this country unless they go find themselves a home.
“So the only way that the EFF and the Julius cult, because they are a cult, can survive is if they take their 10, 12 or 15% possibly, and they hitch themselves to a bigger brother…
“…they are great in their propaganda, they are great in mustering some significant support, but they can’t go it alone. So they will be looking for a home, and they can’t go with ANC. So watch this space.”
The Resignation of Dlamini-Zuma as MP:
“I think after 2017, after the tremendous loss against Cyril Ramaphosa, the CR-NDZ campaign, I think it was over. She’s just been hanging on to increase the pension. Good luck to her…She deserves a bit of a break. I mean, she was married to that man (Jacob) for a long time. So she deserves a bit of a break.”
The Election Prospects of the Multi-Party Charter:
“I remind the people of this country, like I always remind my fellow colleagues in the Multi-Party Charter…we might not like each other, we might not agree on everything, we might not always get get clear consensus. But I will remind the people that put politics aside, put it aside, we are talking numbers.
“Look at what unites us because we all have problems with each other, we all have opinions, but what do we, all of us, in the Multi-Party Charter, what do we agree on? What we agree on is the removal of the African National Congress and the fact that they are currently the government. We must remove them. Now if that is not one singular point that unites a grouping of parties who do share certain DNA equally with each other that unites us.
“We are sitting with different parties, with different values, different ideologies. But we have decided to set that aside so that we can obtain 50 plus 1. And every day that another group splinters from the ANC, another group hedges within the already so fragmented African National Congress, that 50 plus 1 becomes much more realistic to obtain. And I think, not only with the will of God and the absolute unity of the South African people, 50 plus 1 can be obtained.”
The first meeting of the MPC of the year:
“…imagine, political parties that normally are at each other’s throats have got it right to for nearly a year now, sit around the table every single month and concur that what matters is the change of the trajectory of this country’s economy, this country’s possibility to become unified, and, more important, to fix this country and create jobs and to bring back justice. Jobs and justice are the two most important matters…”
The rumoured National Election Date of 22 May:
“I cannot verify or deny, but what I can tell you is that the constitution, the law of this country says that this election must take place between the 1st of May and the last day of August.
“So here’s a factual opinion from Neil de Beer, who maybe does not have the elaborate wisdom of other people, but that knows what’s going on in the ground and sometimes underground, is that the African National Congress will call this election sooner than later, because…they cannot keep this bunch of nuts together, and they will have to call it sooner than later to ensure that they actually go to the elections with something still intact, which is few.”
Plans to counter the ANC’s use of “logisitics” – instead of politics – to win elections:
“The ANC during election time and election day, they do not do politics…They do logistics…When the African National Congress goes to election day, they put politics aside and they focus on only…one thing, logistics. The total focus of the ANC on an election date is to move, move more than 5 million people to the election centre and back home.
“The masses that are coming in to vote have no idea at times what is even on the manifesto of the ANC. They don’t care. What they care about is that day that they get food, that they get transport and then they go make their cross. This is it.
“So the Multi-Party Charter and any other party that wants to equal that movement and logistical plan of the ANC for the past five elections, they have to get up, they have to ask for the money, they have to ask for the funding, they have to put it in place and equal that logistical move…”
The Dark Side of Politics – the “Untouchable” Cele:
“Politics is a dark, dark shade of movement beyond public….J. Edgar Hoover, the then head of the FBI, made it his absolute daily task to ensure that he knows the business of everyone in power. He built up such a history of profiles and dockets that J Edgar Hoover became untouchable even to a president.
“…And what then happened in history is that they then called a stalemate, where one agreed not to touch the other and the other made sure he is untouchable. I don’t know…sound familiar?
“There’s no doubt, there’s no doubt that this current government, this current entity is under severe destruction, that there’s a criminality, a failed State aptitude, and the Zondo Commission, the Zondo who is now forgotten, this three year 1.5 billion commission, declared it State Capture in this country, factually under judgment, took place under the admittance of Cyril Ramaphosa. He was there. He got the 900 volumes of absolute drastic facts being put on the table of an entity that is so dark, so lost, that it cannot be denied.
“Where are the arrests? So you can imagine, minister after minister, who are failing…Bheki Cele, you failed. This is not a problem, people fail. But you’ve got to acknowledge you have. You’ve got to understand that we need revival in the fight against crime. Get out! But he won’t. And he won’t because they are very, very clear reasons why.”
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