Aggrieved members of the governing ANC’s national executive committee (NEC) have threatened that President Cyril Ramaphosa will face a swift exit if his backers continue to cut clandestine deals with the DA with the intention of imposing a coalition with the DA on ANC structures.
Sunday World understands that a shadow team of former and current ministers who are pro-big business was engineering the proposed ANC and DA marriage behind the scenes, undermining the official task team mandated to take forward negotiations with all parties for a government of national unity.
Last week, ministers Mondli Gungubele and Enoch Godongwana were accused of being part of this core but they denied the allegations as baseless gossip.
The underground work was so advanced that when Ramaphosa spoke to his ANC top 7 collegues this week, he casually reported that he had spoken to DA leader John Steenhuisen, leaving them bemused at his level of optimism.
“They believed they had this one under control but the NEC challenged them. Otherwise, we will remove Ramaphosa if his people engage in any side deals. He is not in charge, but for now, he is still safe,” said an NEC member who attended the special sitting on Thursday when the ANC top brass thrashed out coalition options.
The person said the majority of the NEC pushed back against the DA coalition proposal, and ANC chairman Gwede Mantashe played a key role in the resistance by allowing speakers more than the usual three minutes to air their views. During the debates at around 9pm on Thursday, about 15 speakers were still waiting for their turn and the meeting ended just before midnight.
Another NEC member said that Ramaphosa was weak and “did not get what he wanted”, adding that Mantashe and ANC deputy president Paul Mashatile had the upper hand.
The NEC member claimed that the final decision Ramaphosa communicated regarding the national unity government was incomplete because it did not reflect the NEC’s overwhelming rejection of the DA.
“Most people agreed that we cannot work with the DA because we come from two extreme ends of the ideological spectrum. They’re extreme right, and we are a centre-left organisation. But the president did not say so because we cannot go public and say that we cannot work with the DA; we have already spoken to them, but the majority rejects them totally,” said an NEC leader.
“The majority is urging us to collaborate with the EFF, IFP, PA and Al Jamah, as they will provide us with sufficient numbers while we strive to secure the MK’s support, allowing us to form a government that represents the majority. That thing that comrades Mondli, Enoch, and Nat (Nkenke) Kekana were cooking was rejected by the NEC, and they were very surprised. We collapsed them.”
Among those who were vocal at the NEC meeting was former minister and aspirant ANC president Lindiwe Sisulu, who, according to sources, had the
support of some in the ANC top seven, who also encouraged her to continue publicly voicing her dissatisfaction with the DA coalition.
“Some want her to desist from talking about coalitions outside of party structures but some have encouraged her to continue. And she is not going to stop,” according to those in Sisulu’s camp.
There were conflicting accounts about whether Sisulu directly confronted Ramaphosa on Thursday and “accused him of selling out black people” if he
allowed the coalition with the DA.
When Sunday World reached out to her for comment, Sisulu said, through a close ally, that her words were, “We will be selling out black people if we do a coalition with the DA.” She refused to comment further.
Sunday World understands that among the issues Sisulu had raised, both at the NEC and in the public domain, there were “people inside the ANC who, every time the truth is told about the DA, get more offended than DA leaders Helen Zille and John Steenhuisen”.
Our moles also revealed that what dislodged the pro-DA grouping was that they were rejected by their usual allies in other contentious political matters that get discussed by the NEC.
Lulama Ngcukayitobi, the Eastern Cape ANC secretary, surprised many when he took to the stage after two speakers who had already pushed the DA agenda. “He told the meeting that when he left home, his son told him not to come back having supported the DA because next time the son would reject the ANC for MK. “With that, the DA sympathisers were dislodged, and by the time expected opponents like Andile Lungisa, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and Phumulo Masualle came in, they were hammering the final nail in the DA coffin.”
Among the tough questions the DA bloc in the ANC had to answer was clarity on the political motive forces or drivers of the DA coalition, “and no one is prepared to explain that.”.
Those who opposed the move believed that big business and rating agencies were behind the plan.
The NEC was also warned that any decision-making on a coalition with the DA should be spearheaded by people with intelligence experience who would advise on possible national security pitfalls.
“The DA advocates for the division of our nation through the Western Cape cessation. The intelligence officials should give us their honest assessment of the situation, but they haven’t done so yet. Balkanisation would significantly widen the country’s flank, particularly through Simon’s Town military bay and Saldanha Bay’s waters. Such a move would render SA permanently vulnerable to the outside world, particularly our enemies.”
