this administration will not be going to a lockdown. hopefully whatever happens in the future, who knows which administration it will be, but i can tell you this administration will not go to a lockdown. >> the state of north carolina has been called for trump, georgia is continuing its hand tally of ballots cast for the presidential election. georgia's secretary of state said the votes must be audited as joe biden is only in the lead by a tight margin. biden has already secured the election without the state. the 10-day conflict has killed hundreds of people, thousands have fled to sudan. a 30-year cease fire in the western sahara reason could be in jeopardy. morocco said a pro-independence group has blocked the main road

and the military moved in to stop them. azerbaijan has enforced a curfew in areas, after the handover of land to azerbaijan. scores of ethnic armenians have begun fleeing the areas handed over, some have set fire to homes. next it's "inside story." do stay with us. >> one of the most powerful officials in south africa's ruling party charged with corruption. critic says the case is politically motivated.

the government insist it's part of the president's promise to root out graft. so, will he be able to clean up the government? this is "inside story." >> hello and welcome to the program. fraud and corruption. those are the charges facing the a.n.c.'s secretary general ace mugashuli. the case centers around a scandal about sick years ago when he was the head of free state. millions of dollarsall kated to remove asbestos from homes went miss, he denies wrongdoing. he's the most senior official to face prosecution since the president took office. the president promised to stamp out graft in the party and government but he's accused of making this case personal

because the accused is from a rival faction and a political heavyweight. we have a report from the courthouse. reporter: about five years ago the government of the free state province run by then-premier ace mugasheli awarded a contract to identify homes with roofs made from asbestos sheeting. the asbestos was making people ill and was supposed to be removed and replaced. it appears the $15 million paid for the work, just a tenth was used to do the work. none of the roofs were replaced. instead millions of dollars were lost. the contractors and subcontractors came from the office of mugasheli and he may have pocketed millions of dollars. he will appear in dort. this may be the first time the secretary general of the a.n.c.

has been charged but it's certainly not the first time he's been linked to corruption scandals in this province. >> tons of people have turned out to the magistrate's court to show their support for the former premier. they say that the targets against him are politically motivated and that he's done nothing wrong. they say when he was kidnapped, now there's no. the charges against him is something that will likely cause further division within an already divided a.n.c., a party that's already in crisis.

>> let's introduce our panel. madora, an independent policy analyst affiliated with the university of south africa. in johannesburg, the director of corruption watch which encourages public participation in combating graft. let me start with you, how powerful is ace magashuli and how sig can is it that a case has been brought against him? >> he is quite a powerful figure in the sense that he was elected to become the secretary general of the ruling party which is akin to being administrative and political of the ruling party. to that extent he has the latitude to move around on a full-time basis, mobilizing. at the same time he's also very much linked to the former president, jay sob zuma who is

still aggrieved by many things which have taken place within the a.n.c. and he believes he's also a victim of political machinations within the new a.n.c. leadership. and a.n.c. is a deeply divided organization, almost in equal halfs. so the battle will be fought at all levels. that's why each side tend to have a sense of conspiracy whenever there's a move. it also represents the clash of perspectives because ace ma kashuli is the one person who presents hymn as representing the radical side of the a.n.c. who will implement the resolutions of the a.n.c. on the other side, the president promised to fight corruption and renew the a.n.c. and grow the economy.

>> david, from your vantage point, what are the political ramifications of all this? >> i think they're very profound. the a.n.c. is at the corps of -- at the core of our corruption problem. the divisions -- until the divisions are sorted out and i don't hold out much hope for the two factions to continue living in the same party, but until those -- these factions are sorted out, we are not going to conquer corruption. and one of the reasons why the factional fights have lasted to the extent that they have and why corrupt people feel so comfortable in the a.n.c. is that a.n.c. leaders have effective listen been exempt from the attention of law enforcement agencies.

and the fact that, you know, one of the two most powerful leaders in the a.n.c., one of the two most senior leaders in the a.n.c., has been arrested, and charged, suggests that we might be approaching the point of no return between these two factions. and what is going to be interesting to see is how the a. nmple c. reacts in the short term to the arrest and prosecution of the secretary general because they're bound by a resolution to -- he is bound by a resolution of the a.n.c. at the last conference to step down from his position, but i somehow don't see that happening without huge pressure from the other side and i'm not sure that they will have the courage to do that. >> will this case against

mugashuli benefit the president? will it make it easier for him to impose his will on such a divided ruling party? >> not immediately. the first thing we can expect is a backlash and also a very strong push in the a.n.c.'s mid-term conference next year. so it is in that battleground where it will become clear as to what balance of power is. at the same time, if he can demonstrate that he's not in involved in the any of the criminal investigations of corruption and he doesn't care whether it's a person from his faction or a person from another faction who is involved, as long as corruption is being fought, it might just be that the faction is facing -- he's facing might be weakened by the law and prosecutions rather than in the

battle theater of politics within the a.n.c. itself. >> there are those who say that this case has nothing to do with corruption, that it's purely politically driven. what do you say? >> absolute nonsense. you know, obviously, there are possible motives for politically driving this case, although i really don't believe that he's doing that. you know, they could have charged him with several corruption cases, quite frankly. he was very involved in the infamous nadiri case and he's, how do i say this? he's been mentioned in corruption issues for a very long time. and the government which he headed for a very long time is

notoriously inept and corrupt government and it's often been said about the government is that nothing happens in the free set without his prior knowledge and consent. so i don't believe that has any validity whatsoever. the notion that this is purely politically driven, has nothing to do with corruption, i believe there's no credibility whatsoever. >> this case stems from his alleged role in a $15 million contract to find and remove asbestos from homes in the disadvantaged area of the free state province. can you tell us more about how that played out? >> there was money assigned for the removal of asbestos because of the health concerns. and that in ilts seemed not to have been used but was pocketed

by a businessman who is politically connected. and most of those asbestos roofs were never actually removed. and this businessman has also confirmed in the commission to the state that he donated part of the money to the a.n.c. itself and gave some individuals and friends some of the money. so that is the background to this particular issue. but as was mentioned by my colleague, there are several other cases which have emanated from within the province itself of free state and across the country, frankly speaking. >> david, how much outrage is there in south africa amongst the public when it comes to these allegations of corruption and the corruption cases? >> i think there's considerable jut rage. you know, our model is to ask

the public to furnish us with reports of corruption which they do in great numbers. we have a lot of contact with communities as well. and with very oppressed communities. very disadvantaged communities. and the best thing that south africa has got going for it is that the public have not accepted that corruption is something that they can do nothing about. in some countries, that is indeed so. but not in south africa. and it's what i -- as i say it's our best hope for tackling corruption. is the fact that there's continued outrage. as we showed recently when funds meant to provide protective personal equipment for doctors and nurses and other hospital personnel was looted.

and the public were outraged. you know, i would have thought by now they would have gotten used to it. but they're not. and long may that continue. >> what is the public sentiment right now when it comes to this case against ace magashuli? how are people reacting in the country? >> the general mood in the country is they don't care which faction is affected which politician is affected. they want some consequence management. they want accountability. they want people involved in corruption to be take ton task. especially now that they realize the clappings of state-owned companies, the deficit that we have as well as the debt crisis that is rising, and the imposition of further levies on people to pay. now they are making the

connection that if they look the other way, or if they leave things to just a few or n.g.o.'s, then they are going to pay the price. they are beginning to see things in the failure of some of the state companies that they have not seen before. they have taken for granted. it is where you are beginning to see the rise of active citizenship. which otherwise we have not seen in a long while. >> have there been other officials arrested or properties seized in relation to this asbestos removal contract that's in the news because of the case against magashuli? >> yes. i think six or seven people were arrested several weeks ago, including the businessman who owns the firm that was meant to actually remove the asbestos and

a number of other government officials. i'm not certain where the property -- whether property has been seized already but i think it has been. i seem to recollect in the case of the businessman about 35 luxury cars were seized. but i speak under correction, i think it has -- i think asset seizure and freezing of assets has proceeded already. in fact, he will appear in court i think on the 19th of february with others who have already been charged. >> by and large how does the public feel when it comes to the judicial system in south africa? do they have faith in it? >> there is a strong faith in the judicial system because when the legislature was failing to account or to hold political leaders like the previous president to account, they were

able to rise to the occasion and show some degree of independence and of course when the executive itself was involved, they have shown an amazing level of independence. of course we should not take it out that they still call for further transformation of the judiciary itself because others are making claims that because it is not transformed it tends to look into the public sector corruption but look the other way when you have multiple billions such as the one of steinhof which is a private corruption which is the one including the construction companies that seemed to have money through collusion in the world cup. so that in itself is still an issue that has been raised and at times has been repize -- weaponized and politicized.

>> david, do you believe this case will bolster people's faith in the judicial system? will there be a sense that perhaps a corner has been turned and this is a big step forward? >> yeah, i think it will. it's not the judicial system, the judiciaries' rep -- the judiciary's reputation that is at stake that needs bolstering, it's the prosecutorial authority which was notoriously corrupted under the zuma resiem. -- regime. that's why i think there's not likely to be interference in this case. the hallmark of the zuma administration was the extent to which the independence of the n.p.a. was eliminated. if it bolsters, if this case bolsters the credibility of anyone, it will be that of the national prosecuting authority. but what the national

prosecuting authority has to show is not only independence in prosecuting this case but also competence in prosecuting this case. and under zuma, both their independence and competency was massively eroded. and they're the ones who truly stand to lose or gain reputation by this case. not so much the judiciary. >> the president promised to tackle corruption. he has an anti-corruption agenda. has he been doing that? has he been following through on his promises? if so, has he been effective? >> well, i do think there were signs of frustration from the public seeing that wheels were turning very slow. and he seemed to justify that by saying he's still building the capacity of the prosecuting body, the capacity of the

investigations, and also frankly speaking dealing with eundoing the damage of political deployments in some of these entities which are quite crucial in any successful, you know, crime intelligence as well as the general administration of justice. >> david, let me ask you, since he was elected what kind of steps has the president take ton sideline supporters of the former president? >> well, he certainly -- he certainly hoed his own path. there are a range of policy measures that have been taken. for example, the nuclear, the -- zuma's desire to build a whole bunch of nuclear power plant

-south africa has been taken off the agenda. that was to be a very big payday for zuma and the -- and his supporters. i think in tackling corruption he's parted company with zuma and he has riled zuma. in appointing generally competent and honest people to be on the boards and in the executive suites of our state-owned enterprises, to put in competent and independent people in charge of the prosecuting authority in most of the important policing agency, he set up a special unit of the national prosecuting authority whose remit is focused on state capture cases emanating from the state capture era, the era of the zuma administration.

he's done a fair amount. as i said, as i think i might have said earlier, he's been a far more impressive and resolute leader of the state than he has been leader of the a.n.c. and i think the simple reason for that is that i think the public support him in great numbers but in the a.n.c. support for him on the one hand and the magashuli factioned on the other is evenly divided. in fact it might even, the small majority may even rest with zum a&m aga is shuli. >> how worried are officials now in south caffer -- africa. do you believe we'll be seeing more corruption cases being brought against more officials going forward? yeah. you know. you know, if this faction play

their cards very easily, very early, and succeed in doing what would be targeting a major opposition, namely the n.p.a. and the hawks who are the principal investigating body, then we'll see -- we'll see considerable conflict. >> in august, the president said that a.n.c. officials must take leave from their positions if they're charged with corruption and that they must resign if they are convicted. has that policy been applied at all thus far? >> it has been applied for the members who are in the regions who are in local areas but so far at a national level with prominent cases it has never been applied and it looks like now there's even a retreat from

it because they are saying there are consulting lawyers because of the legal challenges of placing some people away during the duration of their trial. and that in itself, i do think that we wouldn't expect the secretary general of the a.n.c. to step aside. he has said that much, he will not step aside at this particular moment. so there seems to be a retreat from that position except for those that have been exercised on lower levels. >> it has applied to people somewhat sort of lower on the totem pole. who have been removed or persuaded to step down. but it has not applied to people of any seniority whatsoever. there is at the moment a sitting m.p. who was previously under zuma a minister of intelligence

or state security. who has been charged with bribery while he was a parliamentarian. and very serious bribery. he remain -parliament. he's not nearly as big a deal as magashuli although quite high profile and powerful. if he can't be removed from his position i can't see how they'll do it to magashuli. >> we've run out of time. thanks so much to our guests. and thank you for watching. you can see the program any time by visiting our website, aljazeera.com. or go to facebook.com/insidestory. or join the conversation on twitter, @ajinsidestory. bye for now.