Johannesburg- Limpopo ANC provincial chairperson and premier Stanley Mathabatha has been lobbied to contest for a third term as part of a plan to unseat national party chairperson Gwede Mantashe.
Mathabatha has been wooed by a faction led by provincial executive committee (PEC) member and Peter Mokaba regional chairperson John Mpe to avail himself for re-election when the party holds its provincial elective conference in April next year.
Speaking to Sunday World on condition of anonymity, several PEC members from both factions confirmed Mathabatha would throw his hat in the ring.
A PEC member said: “If Mathabatha loses his position, then he loses political capital to garner more support from other provinces to replace Mantashe.”
However, his third-term campaign is being opposed by a faction aligned to provincial secretary Soviet Lekganyane. A member aligned to Lekganyane said they were opposed to Mathabatha’s third term because it would create two centres of power.
“It has always been our culture and tradition that the chair must be the premier of the province. This is Stan’s second term as the premier and the constitution does not allow him to have a third term.
“That means somebody must be the premier while he chairs the province and this is not going to work because the premiers don’t always take instructions from their chairs,” said the member.
Another member confirmed Mathabatha had agreed to contest. “It is a done deal. In December we will have a PEC meeting to adopt a roadmap to the elective conference and later start with BGMs [branch general meetings] to nominate our preferred candidates,” the member said.
Mpe confirmed they wanted Mathabatha to run again.“We want to manage the transition of power so that Limpopo goes to the national conference united.
At the moment, there are many people who want to lead, but do not have the ground and this will divide us ahead of the national conference. We believe we are the province that can unite the ANC, especially in light of what happened in the lead-up to the local elections.”
