S’THEMBISO MSOMI | History backs a possible Motsepe ANC presidency

If indeed billionairePatrice Motsepeis not interested in becoming the next ANC president, his latest comments, although emphatic, are unfortunately not going to stop speculation that he is in the running. Motsepe, who is founder and chairman of mining group African Rainbow Minerals (ARM), had to digress from a discussion on the company’s half year financial results to address the latest rumours that he was quietly preparing to leave business for the world of politics. The political rumour mill went on overdrive last month when ARM announced that Motsepe had stepped down as the company’s executive chairman.

The announcement was of course in line with new JSE rules, which stipulate that the post of chairman in listed companies should be non-executive. But this didn’t stop information paddlers from claiming that the move was for political reasons. Addressing financial analysts at the ARM gathering on Friday, Motsepe sounded frustrated by, and angry at, people printing T-shirts and setting up websites in his name without his consent.

“Of course, there are people who are very enthusiastic… [they] keep printing these skippers and I don’t know where they get money from. And now there’s a website, and I am told there are several websites being launched,” Motsepe protested. He then went on to suggest that this was all part of a well-funded smear campaign against him.

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“There are some people who are funding websites and T-shirts, and the aim is to discredit me by saying, ‘He is not following the rules, and it’s all about himself, and it’s all about these businesspeople, these wealthy people’.” But who could be behind such a disinformation campaign? Motsepe provided a subtle but interesting answer: “…it [the smear campaign] won’t go away partly because those who think I may interfere with their objectives, with their political ambitions, start these websites. They print these T-shirts and say the [ANC National Executive Committee] must make an announcement that Dr Patrice Motsepe is not following the rules.

I always follow the rules. My integrity is very important.” In other words, Motsepe believes that he is being targeted by leaders within the ANC who feel threatened by him and therefore wish to eliminate him as a possible candidate long before the ANC presidential race is declared officially open. Whether the “smear campaign” is real or not, it is unlikely that speculation would stop now that Motsepe has officially distanced himself from the PM27 – Savumelana website. Already, some are asking why Motsepe and his team allowed the site to be up for so long without taking steps to shut it down, and why he did not immediately distance himself when the T-shirts video started to do the rounds.

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