Johannesburg – President Cyril Ramaphosa is not worried about being removed at the ANC’s national general council (NGC) and is confident that he will finish his term at the helm of the governing party.
In an interview with Sunday World this week, Ramaphosa poured cold water over moves to use the party’s NGC to oust him, saying the mid-term meeting was meant to assess the party’s performance since the leadership’s election in 2017.
“I was elected by the conference and I serve the ANC at the behest of the members of the ANC, as everybody serves at the behest of the members of the African National Congress. I am a servant of members of the ANC. I am not worried about the NGC, I really am not,” he said.
“The NGC has to focus on the issues of our performance and work that needs to be done,” added the president.
Ramaphosa’s comments came amid a strong push by supporters of embattled ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule for the NGC to remove the president from the party’s most powerful position.
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The ANC has had to postpone its NGC, which was initially planned for June last year, due to the outbreak of Covid-19. It remains to be seen whether the gathering will be held in May because the country is still battling the second wave of the global pandemic. Magashule’s backers wanted to corner Ramaphosa on the nationalisation of the SA Reserve Bank and implementation of radical economic transformation.
But the president is not having sleepless nights over the NGC.
“I was elected to do work in the ANC, to serve our people and that is my preoccupation. I am not preoccupied by positions. I’m preoccupied about serving the people of our country.” Asked about the charges of corruption facing Magashule, Ramaphosa avoided expressing a view and confined himself to the statements of the party’s national executive committee (NEC).
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He said they were going to be dealing with the guidelines on the circumstances under which leaders should step aside when charged with corruption.
“He [Magashule] is a senior official of the ANC who is being charged and he has said it himself that he is willing to subject himself to the decision of the NEC. I think it is best that the matter is left there because there are those processes.”
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