ANC treasurer and acting secretary-general Paul Mashatile is gearing himself up to become the country’s deputy president after the governing party’s crucial elective conference in a little over two weeks.
Former deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe announced on Tuesday that Mashatile, a former premier and chairperson of the ANC in Gauteng, is the frontrunner to replace David Mabuza, who has fallen out of favour with the majority of the organisation’s branches and the leadership of his home province of Mpumalanga.
In a wide-ranging interview, Mashatile told Sunday World the outcome of the party’s elective conference next month will necessitate a “transition” in President Cyril Ramaphosa’s cabinet if Mabuza is not voted back into his powerful post.
“I guess there will be a transitional mechanism because we don’t want these things to be acrimonious. There is a deputy president in government, who is supposed to go until 2024. If he is no longer the deputy president of the ANC, should the deputy president of the ANC come into government? Ideally the answer should be yes, the new deputy should come in,” he said.
“The question is when, because there is an incumbent. That is where the transition starts, there is an engagement. Maybe the current deputy might say it is okay I will do another six months and leave, or 12 months. But I guess that members of the ANC would want the new deputy president to go and assist in government,” he added.
The ANC’s final list of nominees for top six leadership positions shows that Mashatile commands a healthy lead (1 791 branch votes) against national executive committee (NEC) member Ronald Lamola, who garnered 427 branch votes.
Mashatile received most of his support from KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng, Limpopo and North West.
Mabuza did not meet the 25% threshold to qualify for the ballot and has slim chances of being nominated from the floor of conference for the
position of the party’s second-in-command.
Mashatile and his campaign team’s success so far has been attributed to avoiding being associated with any slates. With an advantage of running the party’s secretariat office and treasury, Mashatile sits on pole position to replace Mabuza both in the party and cabinet.
Mashatile said those who approached him to contest for the party’s
second-most powerful position believe in his decisive leadership style, which is needed in the government for “timeous” implementation of programmes.
“I think it has to do with the way they see me perform my responsibilities. They came back and said going forward, we want to nominate you as DP (deputy president) because we want you to go and assist with speeding up implementation and assist the collective there to be able to focus on implementation, get things fixed timeously. But also, they have seen me playing an important role when it comes to issues of uniting our structures,” he said.
“I would say maybe the comrades who started nominating me appreciate that style of leadership of pulling people together. But more importantly, when I was in Gauteng we were known for decisive and timeous implementation. We don’t dilly dally when it comes to implementation. So, perhaps they believe I may be able to contribute at that level with that of approach, where we get things done.”
Turning his attention to the state of the ANC, Mashatile said the party has to forge ahead with its fight against corruption, though some leaders are unhappy with efforts to clean up the state and the organisation.
He said though some leaders feel targeted by the party’s step-aside rule, the organisation has no choice but to use it to tackle graft and state capture. The step aside rule, Mashatile noted, has to be applied in a fair manner.
“We have to forge ahead with that project of ensuring that where there is wrongdoing, we act and we act decisively. It must be without fear or favour; it must be an approach that is seen to be fair and that we are dealing decisively with corruption (and) we are renewing the way government works without targeting any individual because of where they may have been in 2017 Nasrec,” he said.
“In the end, we have to forge unity. Without it our project of economic and socio reconstruction is not going to work,” he said.
Mashatile said it will take long to dismantle the factions in the ANC as some leaders who were involved in state capture have taken cover in them. He said that the fight-back by those who benefited from state capture means the project for unity and renewal may take longer.
“There is a conclusion by the NEC that we have been weakened by the existence of factions. We agreed on unity but in practice we are not able to solidify that unity. We have a presence of factions within the organisation and that weakens it. We want to emphasise unity and we are saying that let’s move away from factions.”
Ramaphosa won the party’s 2017 presidential race with a slim margin against Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma. Since then, the president has struggled to command a strong hand on the NEC and the cabinet.
The opening of nominations for the party’s top positions has seen some members of his national executive including Tourism Minister Lindiwe Sisulu and Public Enterprise Deputy Minister Phumulo Masualle openly attacking Ramaphosa and calling for his ouster.
Mashatile condemned these public attacks.
“I think it is wrong to attack other leaders. I think it is wrong to attack the president, especially when we have an opportunity to meet and discuss issues internally.”
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