This year’s ANC leadership race is firmly based on the organisation’s succession plan, which explains why the deputy presidency is hotly contested.
Younger members of the party are looking to find their way into the top six, but they have their work cut out because older, more experienced, politicians are keen to stay at the helm.
Former ANC Youth League deputy president Ronald Lamola and ANC National Executive Committee (NEC) member Mmamoloko Kubayi are fairly young and have shown interest in the deputy presidency.
Lamola has been formally endorsed by the Mpumalanga Provincial Executive Committee (PEC). He threw his hat into the ring for the position at the beginning of the year while the party was celebrating its 110th anniversary in Polokwane. He appeals to the party’s younger generation, which has been yearning to be recognised by senior party officials.
A source, a Lamola lobbyist, explained that the ANC’s history had shown a pattern of young and energetic leadership — until recent years, when the trend had shifted. While decrying ageism, the source said there was a need for younger leadership in the party, which would also help it to have a succession plan.
The lobbyist said Lamola’s interest in the position had nothing to do with monetary gain, as he still had his legal practice, Ndobela Lamola Incorporated.
Soweto-born Kubayi occupied positions in the ANC Youth League and was a member of the ANC Gauteng PEC before entering Parliament in 2009 and chairing the portfolio committee on telecommunications and postal services. She has also served as a minister in five portfolios: health (in an acting capacity); tourism; science and technology; energy; and communications.
She was recently appointed to lead the ANC’s subcommittee on economic transformation, succeeding Enoch Godongwana, the finance minister, in the role. Chairing the subcommittee is an important position in the party that has given Kubayi political clout as she now has a say in the ANC’s economic policy. However, the new position might not translate into support at the elective conference.
There is tough competition from the likes of the party’s treasurer-general, Paul Mashatile, who has also been endorsed by the Limpopo PEC and is likely to get the backing of his home province of Gauteng.
Mashatile has been working full time at Luthuli House and has been in charge of the administrative arm of the party since taking over the secretary-general’s office from Ace Magashule after the latter was accused of corruption. Mashatile has immense power in the party as his administrative role gives him the final say on the lists of conference delegates, ranging from regional right up to national level.
He has a strong political background in Gauteng, which might help his campaign and weaken that of Kubayi’s, who is from the same province. Mashatile was once the chairperson of the ANC in Gauteng and is a former premier of the province. He has served as arts and culture minister.
A source within the Gauteng PEC told DM168 that, in addition to Mashatile, it would be endorsing Nomvula Mokonyane for deputy secretary-general and Cyril Ramaphosa for a second term as president. Ramaphosa has also been endorsed by Mpumalanga and North West, and will probably be supported by the Northern Cape.
Last week the Eastern Cape provincial chair and premier, Oscar Mabuyane, made himself available for the deputy presidency. He has the backing of his PEC. The provincial structure also endorsed Gwede Mantashe to serve yet again as the chairperson of the party.
Mabuyane is a close Ramaphosa ally who started his political career in the ANC Youth League and South African Students’ Congress. He served for two consecutive terms as the ANC Eastern Cape provincial secretary and has moved up to become the chair of the province.
All eyes will be firmly set on the person KwaZulu-Natal will be endorsing, since the province will have the largest number of delegates at the conference. The province has 136,267 members and will have 877 delegates at the conference.
There has been no word from the Free State or Western Cape because neither province has yet elected its leadership.
The race is on for the top six in the ANC, and the outcome will affect us all
The presidency race
Ramaphosa is competing against the likes of ANC NEC members Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, Zweli Mkhize and Lindiwe Sisulu.
Sisulu, the tourism minister, started her campaign at the beginning of the year and has since been spotted speaking at a number of branch meetings to garner support.
This will not be the first time that Dlamini Zuma has challenged Ramaphosa. At the 2017 conference, Ramaphosa won by a narrow margin of 179 votes to beat her in the ANC presidential race.
Dlamini Zuma, who is minister of cooperative governance and traditional affairs, kicked off her campaign recently, which could throw a spanner into the works for Mkhize, since they are both from KwaZulu-Natal. The advantages that Dlamini Zuma and Sisulu have over both Ramaphosa and Mkhize are the recent scandals involving the latter.
The foreign currency theft at Ramaphosa’s farm in Limpopo became public knowledge when former State Security Agency boss Arthur Fraser laid criminal charges. He accused the President of defeating the ends of justice, kidnapping and money laundering.
Mkhize has been at the centre of the Digital Vibes scandal linked to his department’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic. This led to him being placed on special leave and eventually resigning as health minister on the eve of a Cabinet reshuffle. He did, however, continue as an ANC NEC member.
In what looked like a swipe at Ramaphosa, Mkhize condemned those he said were using their power to eliminate their political opponents in the run-up to the national conference in December.
He suggested that the anti-corruption stance taken by some ANC leaders had become a means to get rid of political opponents. He avoided specifically naming Ramaphosa in his speech.
Delivering the Victoria Mxenge Memorial Lecture on 14 September at Wiggins Hall in Durban, he said members should be working on unifying the party instead of creating “cabals”.
“We do see tendencies of those who want to use their powers to put pressure on others and then sometimes unashamedly start using powers to eliminate political opponents using the criminal justice system. We would like to condemn that. That cannot be how we run the state and the party,” he said.
“Do not allow anyone to intimidate you. People are saying they will not nominate because they are afraid. I have spoken to a number of people. Some of them in some provinces feel intimidated – they are worried that they will be followed and intimidated.
“You cannot have two types of justice. The ANC is an institution for exercising democracy in this country. Therefore [it] must allow freedom of expression and differences of opinion.”
He went on to say that the rules implemented by the party should apply to all its members. His speech comes amid internal complaints that the party’s step-aside guidelines have not been fairly applied, as well as calls by a number of provinces to have them scrapped.
The step-aside rule has caused much controversy within the party since it was formally introduced in 2021, with one of its first casualties being secretary-general Magashule. He refused to step aside and had to be suspended from his position.
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ANC branches’ dominant role
While provinces have been endorsing their preferred candidates, the branches are the most important when it comes to the ANC’s national conference as they constitute the majority of voting delegates.
Branch delegate allocation is in accordance with Rule 10.1.1.1, which states: “At least 90% of the delegates at Conference shall be from Branches, elected at properly constituted Branch General Meetings. The number of delegates per Branch shall be in proportion to their paid-up membership provided that each Branch in good standing shall be entitled to at least one delegate.”
According to a letter signed by Mashatile, dated 14 September, there are 3,942 branches with 100 members or more.
The NEC’s decision is that a branch will get one delegate for every additional 150 members, subject to the limitation of the national conference’s ceiling of attendance.
Electoral rules on nominations
The branches will nominate the top six by secret ballot while the National Executive Committee (NEC) will be selected by a show of hands. For each position, only the three with the most support will be nominated for the top six and have the chance to contest positions.
Under Rule 23.5 of the ANC constitution, anybody who is nominated as a candidate for the NEC must achieve support of 50% plus one from a branch to qualify. The same applies to top-six nominations.
Each province is allowed to nominate no more than two candidates from the floor. In such cases, 25% of conference delegates need to back the candidates by a show of hands.
The ANC has spread out its voting into three categories. First, it will vote for president, deputy president, chair and secretary-general. The second session will elect the deputy secretary-general and treasurer and, finally, 80 members of the NEC.
The ANC electoral committee’s chief, Livhuwani Matsila, says the decision to split the voting is to prevent the occurrence of slates of candidates.
“This arrangement allows the conference delegates to apply their minds when it comes to the second session as to whether there is gender representation in the first four positions, and also they can look into whether there is young [representation]. Also, it is there to discourage slates,” he said.
Matsila also explained how the party would deal with disputes arising from the nomination process.
“There could be disputes relating to the voting process, [for example] whether some candidates do not qualify according to the rules. We will deal with them until 31 October according to our timelines,” he said
The cut-off date for branch meetings to nominate NEC candidates and selection of delegates to the conference is 2 October. DM168
This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R25.
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