While ANC deputy president Paul Mashatile and secretary-general Fikile Mbalula were meeting at the house of their common friend, businessman Reggie Kukama, to plot a presidential succession plan, which will see the two not contesting each other, concerned members of the ANC were also toiling to unite the two for the greater good of the party.
Sunday World can reveal that while Mashatile and Mbalula met alone, there are several ANC national executive committee (NEC) members who are working together under the theme “national unity”, lobbying their comrades behind the scenes to unite the two top guns.
Sunday World reported recently that Mashatile and Mbalula, who were said to be girding their loins to face off to succeed party president Cyril Ramaphosa when the organisation holds its elective conference in December 2027, have, in principle, agreed to work together.
Mbalula and Mashatile are alleged to have agreed to lobby their factions to elect them as deputy president and president of the party to avoid a fierce contest for the top job.
This has emboldened the behind-the-scenes dealmakers, known to Sunday World, to ensure that the agreement comes to fruition.
The project, which has been months in the works, is premised on the belief that if Mashatile and Mbalula do not contest each other, the survival of the ANC would stand a better chance.
The drivers of this project believe that managing the contest at the top will kill slate politics, which have been at the core of the collapse of the ANC.
“As we speak, there are many people who want to contest who have hinged their hopes to contest on either Comrade Paul or Comrade Mbalula,” said a strategic insider in the group.
“So, it is our strongly held view that if we succeed in getting the two comrades to unite, the rest of the staff riders will fall off and the unity of the ANC will be maintained.”
Another NEC member, who is part of the project, said they were convinced that this is the only way the ANC could survive.
“Comrade Mbaks (Mbalula) must allow Spokes (Mashatile) to lead and deputise him, which will probably avoid contests in the rest of the other positions as well.
“There is no rush for Mbaks; he will take over when his turn comes, but we have to at least ensure that we do not finish each other off only to inherit a dead ANC post the December 2027 national conference.”
Another senior member expanded on why getting Mashatile and Mbalula to be running mates was the only sensible way to save the ANC from total collapse.
“We are still talking and engaging with a view to finding each other at the end. We must unite the two because if we do not, it is going to be an ugly and deadly war, because conferences of the ANC are hugely influenced by external forces.”
The priority agenda of the NEC members is to avoid a contest in the presidency at all costs if, after the work being done, Mashatile and Mbalula agree to go for president and deputy, respectively.
To avoid the project collapsing due to the subjective interests of people, it has been agreed that they will hold off on discussing names for the rest of the top seven positions in the ANC.
However, in principle, the consensus is that at the right time when such names are discussed, the approach should be to minimise or avoid contest entirely.
In positions where a contest is unavoidable, the proposal is that whoever loses should be supported by the national working committee, which is more powerful than the national officials, as it can make recommendations to the NEC.
“If we start discussing the rest of the positions now, that will be self-destructive because there are many people who want to contest, and it is too early for that discussion to be about all positions,” said another member of the lobby group.
“We need to focus on the municipal elections next year and ensure that we win and maintain the ANC base, and then thereafter we can begin to have inward-looking conversations about succession.”
The project leaders said the priority for now was to ensure that outcomes of regional conferences unfolding in several provinces are also in the spirit of unity, and that where there have been fallouts, work is done to unite the factions to co-exist post conference.
This strategy will then be employed at provincial conferences when they convene after the municipal poll to ensure that the unity project is a common agenda of all, including those who might have opposed it, come the December 2027 national elective conference.
