Editorial Opinion by The Cape Messenger editor Donwald Pressly
Former South African Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni has been booted from the board of the Brics bank. He appears to be the first victim among the ‘dissenters’ since some 45 MPs bucked the party line in the vote of no confidence in President Jacob Zuma on Tuesday. The Cape Messenger editor Donwald Pressly comments
10 August 2017 – We haven’t seen much disciplining yet of the 45 or so dissenters who either for the motion of no confidence in Jacob Zuma or abstained, but it appears that the first victim of the backlash is former central bank governor Tito Mboweni.
ANN7, the voice of the Gupta family as it is owned by them, was forthright in its reporting of the axing. It reported that he had been removed from the New Development Bank, the official bank of the Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa grouping known as BRICS. “Mboweni took to the social media to announce his sacking,” the news operation reported.
Mboweni is reported to have said that the government had removed him as a non-executive director of the Brics bank last week. He said he had been phoned by a government official. “They are the government of the day after all. They can do as they wish. They have their own logic and reason for doing that.”
He had served for two years. At the time of his appointment he had been told by then Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene that the two-year term was “renewable”. This had not occurred. Mboweni reported on social media, according to ANN7 that it amounted to: being “Fired you might say,”
Although Jackson Mthembu, the ANC chief whip commented after the failed vote of no confidence – which was narrowly won by 198 votes to 177 with nine abstentions – that the party would focus on changing things which needed to be changed rather than on disciplining MPs – and presumably other dissenters, the social media has focused on the witchhunt which appears to be under way in the ANC.
Mzwanele Jimmy Manyi, former government spokesman who runs the ANC front Progressive Professionals’ Forum posted on Facebook: “The dastardly act committed by the 26 MPs must be met with concomitant action from the ANC.”
Reading between the lines, it makes perfect sense that Mboweni is the first known victim of Zuma’s backlash – even though the actual firing was done the week prior to the vote. That great radar of the Zuptas – as Zuma and the Guptas have been dubbed – the Black First Land First (BLF) movement’s Andile Mngxitama wrote the before the vote of no confidence that the motion was a demonstration of the fight back of White Monopoly Capital. The BLF has long spun the line that WMC is run from London and controlled SA whites and puppet blacks.
Thus, Mboweni is seen as a puppet of this class – the white monopoly capitalists – as he is associated with the non-Zuma faction in the ANC. He is closely associated with Trevor Manuel and Cyril Ramaphosa. Thus is makes perfect sense that he got his marching orders from the Brics bank ahead of the vote.
Mngxitama wrote on Monday August 7: It has come to this. White Monopoly Capital (WMC) has choreographed the end of its most irksome adversaries to a tee. President Jacob Zuma is facing a parliamentary conspiracy sponsored by WMC. The story has not been told but it makes for depressing reading. WMC has openly offered money to President Zuma to get him to step down. He has refused to entertain the open bribe. I call it a “bribe” because they don’t call it “state capture” when whites openly say they will pay the president to step down so they can appoint a president they want…
Mngxitama said his organisation has provided an alternative narrative to the WMC one – the state capture mantra he calls it – “which is designed to move our attention from WMC”. The BLF had steadfastly supported Zuma’s land expropriation without compensation, the mining charter – revised to fast track 30% black ownership – and the Brics process.
So the BLF mantra of fighting monopoly capital has produced another victim in Mboweni. He has been replaced at the Brics bank by treasury director general Dondo Mogajane, who clearly must be part of the Zupta clan in government.
What this tells us is that Zuma still has power over who gets the top jobs. Now it is clear that populist rhetoric – in possibly radical populist action like land invasions – will be the order of the day while Zuma remains in power. It is clear that the Zupta rot has not been stopped in its tracks, certainly not yet.