ANC provincial chairperson Stan Mathabatha will descend on KwaZulu-Natal shores on Sunday to thank his emissaries for the overwhelming support they have thrown behind his campaign.
Mathabatha, who is likely to be elected the ANC national chairperson when the party holds its elective conference later in December, will be a keynote speaker at KwaZulu-Natal’s launch of “16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence billed for Durban Exhibition Centre in eThekwini.
Mathabatha, who is campaigning against incumbent Gwede Mantashe and Deputy Minister of Finance David Masondo, is leading the race with a sizeable number of nominations, thanks to branches from KwaZulu-Natal.
The Limpopo premier has received 1 492, Mantashe 979 and Masondo 501. Of the 1 492 branches that nominated him, at least 500 are from KwaZulu-Natal.
Speaking to Sunday World on Thursday, a Limpopo provincial executive committee (PEC) member, who did not want to be named because he is not allowed to speak to the media, said Mathabatha’s proposal to thank the branches was tabled by his allies during the organisation’s PEC meeting held in Polokwane on Monday.
The PEC members discussed the proposal, said the member, and unanimously agreed to accompany him to KwaZulu-Natal.
His visit, said the member, is likely to fuel speculation that Limpopo, which is the organisation’s third-biggest province after KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape, plans to ditch President Cyril Ramaphosa at the eleventh hour and support KwaZulu-Natal’s preferred presidential candidate Zweli Mkhize.
“We are going there to thank our comrades in that province for agreeing with us that comrade Chupu [Stan Mathabatha] must represent us in the top six officials. Since the dawn of democracy, Limpopo has never had a representative in the top six echelons,” said the PEC member.
Another member said the PEC is well-aware that Mathabatha’s detractors have already told Ramaphosa’s caucus that their visit to KwaZulu-Natal is a covert operation to support Mkhize to dislodge him from power.
“But there is nothing like that, Chupu is very clear that he supports Matamela [Ramaphosa] for second term, because that is the mandate of Limpopo branches,” said the member.
“Even though we are not happy that Ramaphosa did not endorse Mathabatha’s campaign and did not even include him in his slate and prefers Gwede instead, he still supports him. His political stance and loyalty towards him has not changed, and he will support him unless the Phala Phala scandal disqualifies him from contesting.”
Limpopo ANC provincial spokesperson Jimmy Machaka confirmed that Mathabatha will be a keynote speaker at the event in KwaZulu-Natal, but disputed that he is going to thank the branches for supporting his campaign.
“He has already thanked all the branches after former president Kgalema Motlanthe announced the list of all the nominated candidates,” he said.
“He is just going to be a keynote speaker at the launch of that event, if anything you can say, he is going there to affirm his candidature, but not to thank anyone or to support the candidature of anyone.”
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