African National Congress (ANC) secretary general Ace Magashule was quoted as saying he anticipated being arrested ‘in Hollywood-type style’, but the Independent Media report on Tuesday night predicting his imminent arrest has been dismissed by the Hawks as an instance of ‘malicious intent to undermine the integrity of the organisation’.
The Independent Media report had readers agog, but the Hawks dismissed it yesterday.
The ANC confirmed that Magashule had been in touch with his legal team to ‘establish the facts’.
ANC spokesperson Pule Mabe said: ‘The Secretary-General did become aware of a rumour that was doing rounds of his imminent arrest. He has immediately taken the most responsible step which was to brief and instruct his legal team to write to the relevant authorities to establish the facts behind this.’
According to TimesLive, Magashule said neither he nor his lawyers had been formally informed of plans to arrest him.
Investigative directorate spokesperson Sindisiwe Twala was quoted by EWN as saying she could not confirm whether or not Magashule was being investigated: ‘If we were investigating him or if we were going to arrest him, we would have done so in secret. Why would we announce it?’
Reports of Magashule’s arrest come after the Hawks arrested a number of people last week in connection with allegations of state capture and evidence heard at the Zondo commission.
These included Edwin Sodi, the businessperson whose company was awarded a controversial R255m asbestos removal project tender, and former ANC MP Vincent Smith, who was charged with corruption and fraud related to Bosasa.
Reports say it is widely expected that Magashule could face charges in relation to the Vrede dairy farm scandal in which at least R250m of taxpayers’ money meant for emerging black farmers in the small town of Vrede in the Free State – where Magashule was premier at the time – were allegedly channelled into a Gupta-linked company, Estina. It has been alleged that some of the money was used to settle the bills for the Guptas’ lavish family wedding at Sun City in 2013.
The Estina case was taken to trial by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) in 2018 when members of the Gupta family and some of their associates were arrested. However, the NPA was later compelled to drop the case. TimesLive said the NPA’s investigating directorate was still working on the Estina matter.