Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi and health MEC Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko are having a falling out after he allegedly reneged on their initial agreement to hand over power to her after finishing his first term.
As a result of the disintegration of their relationship, Nkomo-Ralehoko has now decided to throw her hat in the ring and contest Lesufi when the province holds its elective conference after next year’s local government election.
Lesufi and Nkomo-Ralehoko sat in a room in 2022 as two allies facing a common enemy. The prize was the crown of the ANC in Gauteng, a throne that almost certainly leads to the premiership.
The enemy was Lebogang Maile, the fiery Gauteng finance MEC who was leading the race with branch nomination ahead of the elective conference in June of that year. So, Lesufi and Nkomo-Ralehoko, in a move of pure political calculus, cut a deal.
The terms were simple, according to multiple party insiders who spoke to Sunday World, Lesufi would take the chair, and Nkomo-Ralehoko would be his deputy. And crucially, after a single five-year term, the crown would pass to her because, as she is 56 years old this year, she does not want to lead when she is too long in the tooth.
“It was a classic ANC handshake agreement, built not on trust, but on the cold necessity of numbers,” said a source.
But that deal has now petered out. And its corpse is poisoning the entire Gauteng ANC.
Lesufi, having seen the provincial executive committee dissolved before his term was complete, now wants to run again for a second term. He argues, through his allies, that he never got to finish the job.
To Nkomo-Ralehoko’s camp, this is nothing short of a betrayal, a cynical reneging on a solemn pact that has left her feeling sidelined and cheated out of her destined promotion.
The fallout has escalated from tense meetings to what insiders are now calling “all-out war”.
“This is no longer a disagreement; it’s a fight for survival,” a senior ally of Nkomo-Ralehoko’s faction confided. “He made a promise. He looked her in the eye and made a deal. Now he thinks that because he has incumbency and the premier’s office, he can just wipe it away. He’s mistaken. We are on the ground, and we are mobilising. The war is coming to his doorstep.”
The winner of this Gauteng dogfight will likely be the person leading the province into the 2029 elections and beyond. With the ANC’s national support teetering, losing Gauteng is unthinkable.
The leader who controls the province’s massive budget, its political machine and its narrative will be a kingmaker on the national stage.
Sources said the conflict has moved from whispered accusations in boardrooms to a brutal, ground-level scrap for control of the ANC’s lifeblood: its branches.
Sunday World understands that Nkomo-Ralehoko and her supporters are mobilising resources and claiming a formidable power base. They claim to assert control over branches in the crucial regions of Ekurhuleni, Johannesburg, Sedibeng, and Tshwane. If true, this would represent a
devastating blow to Lesufi, effectively encircling his headquarters.
But the premier’s camp is not yielding an inch. They are pushing back with a counter-claim, insisting that they, in fact, hold the keys to the kingdom of Ekurhuleni. And in that metro, all eyes are on the city’s mayor, and ANC regional chairperson Doctor Nkosindiphile Xhakaza, who is being touted as the ultimate kingmaker in this high-stakes drama.
Xhakaza’s recent re-election in the only region to have held a successful conference so far has only amplified his influence.
“Whoever Xhakaza blinks for will get Ekurhuleni,” a seasoned ANC regional lobbyist not aligned with either camp stated bluntly. “It’s that simple and that brutal.”
The province’s regional conferences, which were supposed to be completed by the end of August, have been mired in delays. Only Ekurhuleni has managed to elect its leaders. The latest deadline for the others to convene is next week, from November 14 to 16, but even that is now under threat.
For Lesufi, the premier’s office is a platform he is unwilling to relinquish, a stage from which he can build a national profile. For Nkomo-Ralehoko, this is about a destiny deferred.
Lesufi dismissed as untrue the fall out between him and Nkomo-Ralehoko.
“The MEC for Health and Wellness remains a crucial part of the executive council and we also work well together within structures of the ANC and government. I am not only baffled and lost by this so called agreement as firstly, it’s practically not possible to even think of such an arrangement within the structures of the ANC, and secondly, I flatly reject such an insinuation existed as it’s only structures of the ANC that have an ultimate right to elect or not elect leaders,” he said.
Nkomo-Ralehoko said she “firmly and categorically deny these allegations,” adding that there was no fallout between her and Lesufi.
“We continue to enjoy a strong and respectful working relationship both in government and in the ANC. We both share the same commitment to serve the people of Gauteng and advance the collective work of the ANC.” She said any claim suggesting tensions or betrayal was “s–imply false and malicious”.
