Po l i t i c s 26Civil Society

POLITICS

THE MAN WHO (A L MO ST ) TOPPLED A PR E S I DE N T

In recent months, Arthur Fraser has had arguably a stronger impact on local politics than anyone — first by paroling Jacob Zuma, then almost forcing Cyril Ramaphosa to quit

Carien du Plessis

rthur Fraser likes to keep out of

Athe public eye. Usually, you only hear of him when he’ s surfaced to drop another political bombshell.

Over a decade ago, he paved Jacob Zu m a’s road to the presidency by leaking classified intelligence tape recordings. More recently, he was the architect of Cyril Ramaphosa’s political near-demise, when he charged that the president had tried to cover up the theft of a large amount of dollars from his game farm, Phala Phala.

Events have yet to play themselves out fully, yet Fraser’s bombs this time had Ramaphosa on the verge of resignation two weeks ago. What gave the whole ordeal extra sting is that in June Fraser laid criminal charges against Ramaphosa and released an embellished account of events anchored in truth. Cue probes by the criminal authorities and the public protector.

Yet there remains many unanswered questions about Fraser’s role in this all.

First, the theft of the dollars — Fr a s e r said it’s millions, Ramaphosa puts it at $580,000 — from a sofa, took place in February 2020 but Fraser only released this information in June this year. This also happened just weeks before chief justice Raymond Zondo released his state capture report, which implicated Fraser in serious wrongdoing during his tenure at the State Security Agency (SSA).

Still, Fraser’s move sparked a flurry of activity. The African Transformation Movement tried to set in motion impeachment procedures, but the report produced by an independent panel led by retired chief justice Sandile Ngcobo was shot down when the ANC caucus rallied around Ramaphosa.

Despite serious gaps in the report, its appearance is devastating for Ramaphosa, who has built his presidency on fighting graft.

What is intriguing, however, is the extent to which Fraser has melted back into the shadows since. He hasn’t spoken on public platforms or made himself available for media comments.

Only recently did he re-emerge with a legal challenge to the allegations made against him in Zondo’s report, days before the start of the ANC’s elective conference in Nasrec.

The fact that Fraser was even appointed to head the SSA by Ramaphosa’ s predecessor, Zuma, in 2016 was already a surprise, since there were already damning findings of serious abuse against him at the agency.

Zo ndo ’s report said Fraser had been a “law unto himself” at the agency, and his tenure was characterised by a lack of accountability. The report found that Fraser was at the centre of the SSA’ s capture, which was turned into Zuma’ s personal outfit and used to fight factional battles within the ANC.

This included allegedly interfering with Ramaphosa’s 2017 presidential campaign, and Zondo noted how millions of rand left the SSA headquarters shortly before the ANC’s elective conference in Nasrec that year.

Fraser had also been accused of setting up, together with SSA special operations head Thulani Dlomo, a parallel intelligence structure in the shape of the Principal Agency Network, which used R600m of state funds to create a shadow operation within the SSA to serve the interests of Zuma and his friends.

Zondo also heard testimony on how R9bn of SSA assets were missing or lost in the 2017/2018 financial year, when Fraser was director-general.

But Fraser, in his court papers, argues that Zondo, as well as the commission’ s evidence leader, Paul Pretorius, wanted to silence him and wouldn’t “hear me, as I would have exposed the real puppet masters behind the commission” .

Though he supported the establishment of the state capture inquiry in 2018, he said it had breached fundamental ethics and principles. “[I ’d] always been concerned about the state of our country and events that would result in democratic reversals and a complete destruction of our country and its institutions,” he said.

His critics, however, will argue that if he feels that way, he sure has found a way to act in direct contradiction of these v a lu e s .

Aside from Phala Phala, however, Fr a s e r ’s other dubious decision was to release Zuma on “medical parole” last year after the former president served just two months of his 15-month sentence for contempt of court. Fraser, at that point, was commissioner for correctional services, a post to which Ramaphosa had, mystifyingly, appointed him.

The courts have now found that parole decision to be “u n l aw f u l ” .

Those who knew the history wouldn’t have been surprised. Fraser met Zuma while in exile, and on his return after 1994, Fraser joined the newly formed National Intelligence Agency.

Initially he was close to former president Thabo Mbeki; his sister, Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi, served in Mbeki’ s cabinet. But by 2009, Fraser was firmly in Zuma’ s camp.

Fraser retired from his job as prisons boss last year, at the age of 57. But don’t be fooled into thinking that “r et i r e me nt ” means he’s stepping back from political life. Expect plenty more grenades from the man who almost forced South Af r ic a’s president to quit. x

CIVIL SOCIETY

This year OUTA scored its biggest victory, when e-tolls were scrapped. But the organisation might not have been around to fight for this if big business, and some medium-sized companies too, had had their way

Giulietta Talevi

thumping victory against

AGauteng ’s detested e-tolls makes the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) and its founder, Wayne Duvenage, this year’s FM civil society newsmaker.

The National Treasury’s decision to bin the tolls at last is largely due to OU TA’s 10-year battle against road agency Sanral. Duvenage started the organisation in 2012 with exactly this goal in mind. He tells the FM: “Ev e nt u a l ly the government came to its senses and applied what we suggested more than 10 years ago.”

It was, he says, a milestone. “We set out to show the government the power of people if it does not listen.”

While many ignored their e-toll bills, about 15% of Gauteng’s road users were coughing up — including big fleet companies. Duvenage says the scrapping of the e-tolls “gives clarity and certainty about this issue” .

While the scrapping of e-tolls was OU TA’s initial raison d’être, it became one issue in a much bigger project — to tackle government-led tax abuse. And yet, asked whether OUTA’s next war may be a sort of civic-sponsored tax revolt, Du v e n a ge’s response is: “No chance.”

He says: “We ’re not trying to drive a mindset of noncompliance in this country — t h at ’s the worst thing you want to do. We’re not saying don’t pay your electricity, don’t pay your taxes; what we are saying is stand your ground on bad law.”

He doesn’t support a generalised tax revolt. “All the other taxes you and I pay are not unlawfully imposed upon us. The r e’s no such thing as a workable tax revolt — you don’t want to live in a country where very soon there’s chaos.”

What you do want, he says, is to start introducing “legally applied tax revolts” them Duvenage, who was then CEO of leasing group Avis, has grown to a fully funded staff of 45 professionals.

It ’s no thanks to big business, however. Companies initially keen to support the e-tolls challenge bailed when government pressured them, leaving OUTA with a R4m legal bill in 2013.

But instead of folding, OUTA amended its funding model, re-filed its memorandum of incorporation to become a public benefit organisation and set up a debit order system. It “c h a nge d everything ” says Duvenage.

Through this OUTA has experienced first-hand how craven big business can be. Part of the problem, says Duvenage, is that large firms stack their boards with the politically connected — “the politburo” — who are desperately reluctant to ruffle fe at he r s .

In the case of e-tolls, he says compan-

DR AW I NG A LINE IN THE SAND

where the courts rule that local municipalities “are so bad that the citizens are given the right to take over the management of the town” .

These are the cases OUTA is now fighting, on behalf of fed-up residents whose towns have been gutted by years of incompetent or corrupt management.

OU TA’s biggest immediate battle, however, is to overturn Aarto’s road traffic offences management system, which Duvenage describes as “u nw o r k a ble” and “u n m a n a ge a ble” .

He expects the Constitutional Court to rule (in its favour) in March. “[The government doesn’t] want to listen — but that might be another law that is brought to its knees,” he says.

Craven big business OU TA’s story is one of resilience. What started with three volunteers, among