Jet-setting ANC president Jacob Zuma - waiting in the wings to take
over from Thabo Mbeki - has had many asking the question: Who is oiling the Zuma
machine?
Just who exactly is oiling the Zuma machine and who will form part of his
cabinet is another equally puzzling question as Zuma prepares for the highest
office in the land.
While the definite answers to these questions remain
elusive, some key figures around Zuma have emerged, some relatively
unknown, and are likely to feature more prominently in years to come.
Zuma is officially unemployed *1 and has been like
that since June 2005 when he was fired by Mbeki as the country's deputy
president. Even as ANC president he does not draw a salary from the party.
While the 2005 ANC national general council resolved to find ways to support
Zuma, who lost his R800 000 a year government salary, nothing concrete came out
of that pledge.
But this has not hindered Zuma from globetrotting,
especially after Polokwane, paying lobola for
potential wives and throwing a lavish 65th birthday
bash at Durban's Inkosi Albert Luthuli ICC last year, attended by a coterie of
close comrades and his backers.
Campaigning
Some of the faces around Zuma have recently emerged in the public domain
although they had been campaigning and offering financial support to Zuma's
cause, albeit clandestinely.
The names of businessmen like Vivian Reddy, chairman of the Friends of Jacob
Zuma Trust Don Mkhwanazi and Prince Sifiso Zulu are some of the names that have
been linked to Zuma.
This is besides his former financial advisor and convicted fraudster Schabir
Shaik who, the National Prosecuting Authority alleges, continued paying Zuma
even during his fraud and corruption trial. Shaik was eventually found guilty of
making illegal payments to Zuma.
Former Denel boss Sandile Zungu, security company boss Sibusiso Ncube,
construction tycoon Godfrey Mavundla and Durban businessman Mabheleni Ntuli are
just some of the barely known Zuma-aligned businessmen.
The latter men were also part of Zuma-linked businessmen who travelled to
Polokwane to witness Zuma's thumping of Mbeki.
Mavundla went as an ANC delegate.
While in Polokwane, Zuma's businessmen rented a farm outside the town and even
brought in their own chef in fear of food-poisoning by the
Mbeki camp.
Mavundla recently slaughtered more than 20 cattle
to celebrate Zuma's victory in Greytown KwaZulu-Natal, Zuma attended the event.
Zulu, a relative of King Goodwill Zwelithini, has been on Zuma's side for a
number of years, having contributed to his fundraising efforts and even
providing catering services.
It was at a fundraising event, in 2006, at a restaurant in North Beach, Durban,
where Ntuli pledged his support to Zuma before signing over a R50 000 cheque,
apparently meant for the Jacob Zuma RDP Education Trust.
Until recently Zungu had largely kept his support for Zuma under wraps, but came
out publicly when he organised a dinner, for 70 black businessmen with Zuma, a
few months before Polokwane.
Zungu is understood to be close to Transport Minister Jeff Radebe, a known Zuma
supporter and current NEC member, and attended meetings by Zuma's supporters
ahead of Polokwane. Besides that, it is unclear how else the Durban-born
businessman had supported Zuma, if at all.
Zungu's company Umthunzi Telecoms lost out on an opportunity to buy Transnet's
shares in cellphone company MTN, despite an earlier agreement in 2004. He is at
present suing the government and Transnet for R8 billion.
One businessman told Independent Newspapers that some of Zuma's backers had
elected to remain undercover in fear of reprisals
from Mbeki's government which, until the Polokwane conference, could
exclude them from getting business deals.
An example, he said, was the botched SA Communist Party fundraising campaign
last year where businessmen failed to honour their financial pledges to the
party, apparently in fear of being ostracised by the Mbeki government and thus spoiling
their business prospects.
But others like controversial businessman Elias Khumalo, the alleged mastermind
of the bogus Zuma assassination plot scandal which turned out to be a
poorly-invented publicity stunt, have backed and supported their man throughout.
Meanwhile, others like Erwin Ullbricht, who calls himself Zuma's "adopted" son,
always lurk in the background whenever Zuma appears
at public events. Apparently he partly organised the 65th birthday celebrations
for Zuma.
Ullbricht was once quizzed by the Scorpions in connection with his alleged
illegal surveillance on KZN Judge President Vuka Tshabalala.
Having successfully catapulted Zuma to power, the focus for his supporters has
now shifted to the question of who will hold influence post-Polokwane.
While some are understood to have genuinely backed Zuma, others are thought to
have strategically positioned themselves for future
benefits. Therefore who makes it to cabinet becomes an important
determinant of the future placements and prospects of some of Zuma's backers.
The post Polokwane era has seen the re-emergence of the likes of mining baron
Tokyo Sexwale who was elected back into the ANC national executive committee.
Sexwale has recently shared public platforms alongside Zuma and the Mvelaphanda
boss was also part of the ANC delegation which visited Angola for the
commemoration of the battle of Cuito Cuanavale last week.
Although Sexwale has business interests in Angola, some have begun speculating
whether Sexwale will become to Zuma what mining baron Patrice Motsepe is to
Mbeki, his preferred man to lead business delegations on international trips.
Announcement
Already the announcement by the ANC NEC that party deputy president Kgalema
Motlanthe will be "deployed" to Mbeki's cabinet has unsettled some of Zuma's
supporters. Motlanthe is generally touted as the fallback
plan to lead the country should Zuma be convicted in his upcoming
corruption trial, set for August.
This, to Zuma's backers, is seen as a threat to their aspirations and one Zuma
supporter told Independent Newspapers that they had become even more suspicious
of Motlanthe's loyalty to Zuma when, during the first NEC meeting in January
where Zuma's impending trial was discussed, he made no input on the subject.
But some prominent Zuma supporters like Jeff Radebe, Blade Nzimande and Nozizwe
Madlala-Routledge are poised to make it to the post 2009 cabinet.
It had been widely speculated that Zuma's right-hand man Dr Zweli Mkhize, KZN's
finance MEC, would be elevated to national health minister but it is understood
that Zuma prefers his confidant to be at the helm of his home province.
With acknowledgements to Daily News.
*1And will be unemployable after he
gets convicted of corruption.
Except for breaking stones in a quarry for 15 years.