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JOHANNESBURG: A prime official in South Africa’s governing African National Congress appeared in courtroom on Friday on corruption prices, a case that has deepened divisions inside a celebration whose rule has been unchallenged for the reason that 1994 finish of white-minority rule.
Ace Magashule, secretary-general of the ANC and amongst its strongest leaders, arrived on the magistrates courtroom in Bloemfontein on Friday morning to the cheers of 1000’s of supporters who denounced the trial as a witch hunt. They chanted, danced and waved banners studying “Hands off Comrade Magashule”, footage from nationwide TV channels confirmed.
He is probably the most high-profile politician to be tried since former president Jacob Zuma, whose trial on graft prices resumes in December.
Some protesters tried to tear down a barbed wire cordon across the courtroom whereas others burned yellow ANC T-shirts bearing President Cyril Ramaphosa’s face, calling on him to step down. Magashule had handed himself into the police that morning.
“If you arrest Ace Magashule, you arrest the whole ANC!” one demonstrator shouted.
One of the highest six strongest officers of the ANC, which has dominated Africa’s most industrialised nation for 1 / 4 of a century, Magashule faces allegations associated to a contract to audit homes with asbestos roofs awarded whereas he was premier of the Free State, of which Bloemfontein was the capital.
He denies wrongdoing.
Magashule is from a faction inside the governing social gathering that has opposed Ramaphosa since he changed Zuma as head of state in February 2018. Ramaphosa has pledged to wash up the ANC’s picture and take a tricky stance on corruption.
“This is a stress test for the ANC,” stated impartial political analyst Daniel Silke. “Whilst there will be a pushback from those implicated in corruption…, (who) will try to factionalise the debate…, the president has sufficient strength within the broader ANC to withstand this.”
Tellingly, the ANC has not requested Magashule to step down due to the allegations.
Speaking on state broadcaster SABC, ANC deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte warned Magashule supporters, “while we are supporting (him), we should not do so by destroying the very movement that we want to change this country.”
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