Embattled President Cyril Ramaphosa and his allies are preparing to unleash war on multiple fronts to save his political career as the battle for the soul of the ANC reaches boiling point in the run-up to the party’s critical elective conference.
While Ramaphosa initially indicated he wanted to resign following the release of the section 89 independent panel’s report, ANC chairperson Gwede Mantashe and the party’s economic transformation head, Mmamoloko Kubayi, are among those who convinced the
troubled president to stay the course and take the report on judicial review.
The section 89 independent panel, headed by retired chief justice Sandile Ngcobo, this week handed the report to speaker of parliament Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, throwing Ramaphosa’s political future in turmoil.
The report found he may have violated the constitution in his handling of the theft of foreign currency at his Limpopo farm in February 2020.
But Ramaphosa and his backers plan to take the fight to a make-or-break meeting of ANC’s national executive committee (NEC) tomorrow ahead of another equally precarious parliamentary debate on Tuesday.
The final battleground is expected to be at the party’s elective national conference from December 16 to 20, where Ramaphosa will battle it out with former health minister Zweli Mkhize for the ANC presidency.
Sparks are expected to fly at the NEC meeting at the Nasrec Expo Centre tomorrow, where the president’s detractors are planning to mount the biggest attack on Ramaphosa in a bid to force him to step aside.
Ramaphosa, who appears to have been completely caught off guard by the report, will have to rely on the numerical strength of his supporters in the NEC, who in the recent past have managed to neutralise his foes over the Phala Phala scandal.
Mantashe was first to come out gun blazing in defence of the embattled president, insisting that Ramaphosa should not be hounded into stepping down.
“Ethical and moral leadership does not mean that one must lie on his belly and let everyone walk all over him; that’s not how ethics work,” he told Sunday World.
Mantashe insisted the president must take the panel’s report under the judicial review on the grounds that it has not been worded properly.
Mantashe insisted Ramaphosa will not be bullied into submission. “I’ve never said the president must not step down …all we are saying is that all due legal processes must be followed,” he said yesterday.
Tomorrow’s NEC meeting follows a hurriedly scheduled Friday gathering that “collapsed” amid divisions between Ramaphosa’s backers and those aligned to the so-called radical economic transformation forces.
At that meeting, former president Thabo Mbeki is said to have raised concerns over Ramaphosa’s absence at the meeting.
However, Mantashe reportedly pushed back, arguing Mbeki himself was absent at the equally chaotic NEC meeting that recalled him as ANC president in 2008. Zuma was also not present when the NEC decided he should step down in 2018, Mantashe is said to have argued.
Another point of contention at the meeting was over whether Ramaphosa should take the Phala Phala report on review.
Sunday World was told by NEC members who attended the gathering that KwaZulu-Natal ANC secretary Bheki Mtolo charged that Ramaphosa should not challenge the report without the mandate of the party. However, Ramaphosa’s supporters retorted that members were allowed to challenge reports such as those from the Zondo commission into state capture because they affected them personally.
Pressure from ANC provincial chairpersons and ministers including Kubayi, Ronald Lamola and Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, among others, is said to have swayed Ramaphosa not to resign.
This after he early on Thursday, a day after the report was released, had told some in his inner circle that he was planning to resign. A resignation speech had already been prepared, sources said.
The party’s national working committee was also meeting today to discuss the Phala Phala matter and is expected to make recommendations to the NEC tomorrow.
An NEC leader aligned to Ramaphosa said they are prepared to take Mbeki head on. Mbeki has of late been critical of Ramaphosa and the Phala Phala scandal.
“It is time that the president fights for himself. People are doing this to him because they know he is soft. We are also worried about Mbeki’s agenda. We have been keeping quiet and giving him respect. This is now extremely undermining Cyril,” said one NEC member.
Presidential hopefuls Lindiwe Sisulu and Nkosazana DlaminiZuma have been leading the charge against Ramaphosa calling on him to fall on his sword.
The panel found Ramaphosa may have violated the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act (PRECCA) by acting in a manner that is inconsistent with his office.
Suspended secretary-general Ace Magashule yesterday joined the chorus of those calling for Ramaphosa’s head. He said there are double standards in the ANC as he too was charged for violating PRECCA and had to step aside.
“On my charges there is no money involved, but on Ramaphosa there is. There are double standards. The man has finished the ANC. Those who benefited from white monopoly are the ones who are saying that the man mustn’t step aside,” he said.
“I agree with Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma that the president must step aside. The branches of the ANC and South Africa must decide, as there are double standards here. This is the worst case that has the South African Reserve Bank and the foreign currency declaration. This is a brazen crime,” said Magashule.
For more political news and views, click here.
Follow @SundayWorldZA on Twitter and @sundayworldza on Instagram, or like our Facebook Page, Sunday World, by clicking here for the latest breaking news in South Africa. To Subscribe to Sunday World, click here.
