Zuma appoints ANC outcast Tony Yengeni to defend him at disciplinary hearing
Tony Yengeni and Jacob Zuma share more than just their ANC history; they are also both linked to the Arms Deal case.
Jacob Zuma has enlisted former ANC national executive committee (NEC) member Tony Yengeni to represent him at the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party president’s disciplinary hearing, set to begin today, July 16, 2024.
In a statement circulated on social media, the MK Party said Zuma had the right, according to ANC rules, to be represented by an ANC member of his choice.
“President Zuma will be represented by a long-standing struggle veteran, former ANC NEC member and commander of uMkhonto weSizwe [the ANC’s liberation army, not the Zuma party of the same name] comrade Tony Yengeni,” the statement said.
Yengeni, like Zuma, is a vocal critic of President Cyril Ramaphosa and has increasingly been isolated from the ANC, starting when he failed to make it onto the party’s NEC – the highest decision-making body – after 55th national elective conference in December 2022.
HOW JZ LANDED IN TROUBLE
Zuma will face the party’s national disciplinary committee after he was charged and suspended after contravening the party’s rules when he launched the MK Party on 16 December 2023 in Orlando, Soweto. The ANC invoked Rule 25 of its constitution and charged him with bring the party into disrepute.
Zuma – a former two-term president of the ANC – later campaigned for the MK Party in the lead-up to the 29 May elections, contributing to the ANC’s worst electoral performance since dawn of democracy.
Initially, the hearing was scheduled to take place on 7 May at Luthuli House, the ANC’s headquarters in Johannesburg. However, a letter was issued saying the hearing would take place after the elections citing security concerns.
Zuma, however, believes this postponement was triggered by the ANC’s fears of granting him a public audience outside Luthuli House.
The former president, although leading another party that is represented in Parliament, is still a member of the ANC, albeit under suspension. But Fikile Mbalula, the ANC’s secretary-general, believes Zuma has already expelled himself from the party.
Mbalula also called Zuma an “irritation” in the run-up to elections
ARMS DEAL CONVICT AND ANC OUTCAST TONY YENGENI
Zuma’s choice to call on ANC outcast Tony Yengeni for help is a interesting one.
Yengeni was convicted of fraud and sentenced to four years in prison after he was found to have received a discount on a Mercedes-Benz SUV from one of the firms bidding for a contract during the Arms Deal procurement period. Yengeni was the ANC’s chief whip in Parliament when he received the car in 1998.
He was released from prison on 15 January 2007, barely four months after being incarcerated.
With Zuma’s own Arms Deal-linked trial set to start next April, this means the MK Party leader has called upon an acolyte who has faced similar criminal litigation, over a related case.
The State alleges that Zuma, when he was deputy president of South Africa, received bribes from a French arms firm Thales via his financial adviser Schabir Shaik.
The bribes were made in order to protect Thales from any future scrutiny emanating from contracts during South Africa’s procurement of arms in the late 1990s.
Shaik was jailed for 15 years in 2005 for his part in the scheme, where he solicited a bribe on behalf of Zuma from Thint, the local subsidiary of French arms company Thales. He was released on medical parole in 2009.