‘The ANC is a criminal enterprise’ – Prince Mashele

As allegations of political interference, organised crime, and corruption within South Africa’s criminal justice system pile up, political analyst Prince Mashele said the ANC’s involvement has irreparably tarnished its credibility with voters. 

Mashele said that the recent developments in the case surrounding suspended Police Minister Senzo Mchunu show that the ANC is a criminal enterprise and that the party is working with underground criminal networks.

Speaking to Mike Sham on the State of the Nation, Mashele responded to recently exposed phone calls between former Minister of Police Bheki Cele and Vusimuzi ‘Kat’ Matlala, a tenderpreneur accused of orchestrating a corruption network. 

As reported by News24, Matlala secured a R360 million SAPS health services tender while under investigation by the SAPS Hawks for allegations of fraud and collusion. 

Matlala was previously flagged by murdered whistleblower Babita Deokaran for suspicious Tembisa Hospital contracts. 

KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi then exposed Matlala for paying current Minister Mchunu to disband the political killings police task force team, investigating him for murder.

Mkhwanazi said that investigative work unmasked a criminal syndicate involving “politicians currently serving in parliament, law enforcement officers, as well as prosecutors and the Judiciary,” he said. 

Mkhwanazi said that these individuals are being controlled by certain businesspeople in Gauteng.

Implicating the former minister, he alleged that phone call records revealed that Cele tried to call Matlala ten times on the day before the R360 million tender was cancelled and Matlala was arrested.

“The whole ANC is a criminal enterprise. South Africans must get this. The ANC is a criminal enterprise, and because they have been controlling our state, they have also criminalised our state,” said Mashele. 

He added that ANC officials have grown accustomed to receiving bribes from criminals like Matlala and using this money to fund luxurious lifestyles.

“There is no longer a difference between an ANC minister and a hardcore criminal. They are now the same thing,” he said. 

He added that he was not surprised to hear of the phone calls between Matlala and Cele.

Corruption investigations stalled

Cele was found to have stayed at Matlala’s luxurious penthouse at a Pretoria hotel on more than one occasion.

Following the arrest, he has refused to explain his relationship to Matlala to the media and said he will only do so in a judicial inquiry 

Mashele said that Cele is an ANC cadre. “Corrupt, just like every other corrupt ANC cadre,” he said. 

This criminality extends to the top of the ANC, according to Mashele, who called President Cyril Ramaphosa the “criminal in chief”. 

Speaking on the issue, Ramaphosa said the allegations of corruption called for an urgent and comprehensive investigation, and set up the Madlanga Commission.

Ramaphosa said that it would investigate the involvement of current and former senior officials and members of the national executive. The commission was set to begin its work on 1 September.

This has now been postponed indefinitely because the necessary infrastructure was not in place.

Following the announcement, Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development Mmamoloko Kubayi said that “disciplinary proceedings” will be taken against the Director-General of her department, Adv. Doctor Mashabane.

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) said that the delay shows the president’s hesitation to hold his close political ally and current minister of police accountable. 

The consequence of the ANC’s implications in such criminal activity, Mashele said, is that it will be kicked out of power. 

He said the party has lost its credibility with voters due to its involvement in such scandals and anticipates its support will drop drastically by the next local elections. 

The ANC’s apparent lack of control over the country’s security forces will be beneficial when they are democratically removed, according to the political analyst. 

The ANC will be removed from power without violence, Mashele said, “which is lucky because liberation movements don’t usually relinquish power without resistance.” . 

“If they were to issue an instruction to say ‘the security forces must resist,’ the heads of the ANC cadres would be blown up,” he said. “So we are lucky our security forces are so fragmented.”