The Africa Report — July-August 2017

“We have to do things

differently and make more effort

so that the coming seven years

give us a form of transition”

Rwanda’s PresidentPaul Kagameagain hinted that he may retire

at the end of his next term if he wins the election planned for August.

“Where we are right now,

our movement is not in

a good place. Our country

isnotinagoodplace”

South Africa’s deputy presidentCyril Ramaphosais campaigning

for the presidency by saying he can fix the ANC’s problems.

SOMETHING SNAPPED inside Vytjie

Mentor in March 2016, and it opened

the floodgates on a controversy that

has turned the politics of South Africa

on its head. Alarm bells had been

ringing for several years about the

crony capitalism and nepotism that

has been eating into the governing

African National Congress (ANC),

but Mentor was the first top ANC

politician to name names. She

spelled it out as plainly as she could:

the relationship between the Gupta

family and President Jacob Zuma

was an economic and security threat.

In a posting on social media,

Mentor recounted how the Gupta

brothers invited her to their family

home: “They asked me to become

minister for public enterprises

when Barbara Hogan got the chop,

provided I would drop the South

African Airways (SAA) flight route

to India and give it to them.” Mentor’s

account prompted some critical

questions. With what authority were

the Guptas picking ministers, a power

that was meant to be the prerogative

of the executive? Who thought it was

a good idea for their appointees to take

business from state-owned enterprises

to give to private companies owned

by friends of the president?

Zuma’s ties to the Guptas were

investigated by then public protector

Thuli Madonsela and are likely to

be probed by a judicial commission.

They are at the centre of accusations

that Zuma has presided over

state capture by corporate interests.

In the fog of politics surrounding

whathascometobeknown

as ‘Guptagate’, Mentor’s role was

brave and prescient, all the more

so because she is an ANC stalwart.

With the country’s politics

in ferment as several other ANC

politicians summon the courage

to speak out, and the release of

The ANC veteran has taken aim at corruption within

the party and is ringing alarm bells about its ability

to remain the dominant force in South African politics

SPOTLIGHT

Vytjie Mentor

ALEXANDER ESA/THE TIMES/GALLO IMAGES/GETTY IMAGES

AMENTOR’SPATH

1990s

ActiveinlocalANC/

UDF branches

2002

Observer on the

ANC’s national

executive committee

2004

Head of the ANC

caucus in parliament

2008

Head of parliament’s

public enterprise

committee

2016

Denounced the Gupta

brothers for offering

heraministerialpost

on condition of

preferential treatment

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