A group of politicians who recruited former chief justice Mogoeng Mogoeng to be their party’s presidential candidate in 2024 are reeling from shock after learning that the man of the cloth will no longer be running.
The All Africa Alliance Movement (AAAM) declared in August last year that their newly formed party, under their presidential candidate Mogoeng, would usher South Africa into “Canaan”.
However, Mogoeng made headlines this week after announcing in an eNCA interview that he would one day become South Africa’s president without going through a general election.
The interview stemmed from his speech at a gathering in Bloemfontein over the weekend.
The former chief justice said there was a possibility that there could be a stalemate to elect the next president in the National Assembly, where parties, each seeking their own leader to take over the reins, would opt for someone neutral.
“Who said God can’t touch them and say, ‘There is a man who is not in any political structure; go to that man and approach him, let him take a seat, somebody vacate the seat, let him come in and vote him into the position of [president].’
“Who said it can’t happen? I’m not saying ‘might’; it is unstoppable, but I don’t know when.
“It sounds crazy; it sounds nonsensical, but I have seen how unlimited the power of this God is. I am going to be [the] president of this country at the appointed time. I don’t know when. It may even be next month,” said Mogoeng.
AAAM secretary, Bishop Meshack Tebe said the organisation was still recovering from the recent developments.
“We are hurt and disappointed. We truly thought we were on the same page, but the chief justice has now abandoned us, and we have yet to establish the reasons behind this,” said Tebe.
Tebe accused unnamed cabinet ministers of surrounding Mogoeng like sharks after AAAM announced his candidacy for president.
“After we announced him [as] our presidential candidate, there were cabinet ministers who immediately visited him, with the assistance of some pastors who have greater political aspirations. From there, the chief justice was no longer accessible.
“We were under the impression that he was only praying to seek answers on what direction the party should take to fulfill its mandate of changing the lives of South Africans. [However], our members who attended the Bloemfontein gathering sent us messages, informing us that things have changed. We are in shock,” he said.
Tebe said they would move on “with or without the chief justice”.
“We are speaking to our constituents. We know we have lost KwaZulu-Natal because of what is going on with key figures there right now, but we still have many Christians across the country who believe in our party. It was never about Mogoeng but about South Africans.
“I must add that before taking any drastic actions, we will also send a delegation to the chief justice’s house to humbly get an understanding of what he is saying. Were are hurt, but we remain loyal to taking South Africa to the promised land,” he said.
Tebe added that Mogoeng might be relying on the outcomes of ongoing litigation between independent candidates who wish to run for national office in the general elections of 2024 and the government.
“From where we are right now, we believe he might come out as an independent candidate who does not belong to any political formation but stands because the people would have asked him,” Tebe said.
Two years after the Constitutional Court ruled that preventing independent candidates from contesting positions in provincial legislatures and the National Assembly was unconstitutional, Ramaphosa eventually signed the Electoral Amendment Bill into law this year.
In order to be eligible for election since 1994, individuals who wished to participate in provincial and national legislative bodies were required to belong to a political party.
In local government elections, independent candidates have effectively challenged the political leadership of their wards based on the support they receive from their communities.
The bill underwent extensive public consultations, prompting the National Assembly to ask the Constitutional Court for two deadline extensions. The last day for parliament to enact the bill was February 28, 2023.
However, civil society organisations are challenging the new bill in the Constitutional Court over the requirements for any independent candidate to stand for national or provincial office.
Attempts to contact Mogoeng were unsuccessful.
