Public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan says that his future in the government lies in the hands of President Cyril Ramaphosa but that "intense efforts" are being made to stabilise state-owned enterprises (SOEs) such as Eskom.
Pressure on Ramaphosa to remove Gordhan reached fever pitch at the weekend, with even those formerly supportive of Gordhan joining the clamour for him to go.
A broad array of groupings both inside and outside the ANC alliance is also appealing to Ramaphosa to place Eskom
under the control of mineral resources & energy minister Gwede Mantashe.
While Gordhan has been in the crosshairs of some factions in the ANC as well as the EFF from day one in his role as corruption-buster-in-chief, the campaign now enjoys much broader support, with numerous ANC insiders deeply critical of both his failure to turn Eskom around and his political and leadership style.
In an interview on Sunday, Gordhan defended himself against the attacks, saying that the damage that had been done by corruption would not be overcome in a short period.
The independent technical task team that he appointed to examine Eskom’s operational failings is engaged in a process with Eskom management to reach a common understanding of the problems.
"Under the new CEO intense efforts are being made to take a much deeper look at what needs to be fixed in the short term that will give us a reliable power outlook in a context where we [have] an unreliable plant."
Country first
Gordhan said that in all his efforts over decades of political involvement he had always put the country first.
Asked in television interviews at the weekend on whether he would remove Gordhan for his failure to turn Eskom around, Ramaphosa
said that this was not his immediate concern.
"We need to focus on how we deal with Eskom and its problems and reposition it.
"That is the primary focus. Other matters are things we need to focus on at another stage," he told the SABC.
But the pressure is unlikely to diminish, with Ramaphosa running the risk of becoming isolated in his party, particularly among its top leadership, if
he resists.
His deputy, David Mabuza, was the one to fire the first shot across the bows, saying on Thursday that he believed Gordhan and the Eskom board had misled Ramaphosa.
Tensions are also running high between Gordhan and Mantashe, who has previously suggested that Eskom fall under his portfolio.
A spokesperson for trade union federation Cosatu last week called for Gordhan to be axed following Mabuza’s comments, although the federation’s president, Zingiswa Losi, stopped short of reiterating the call on Saturday, saying only that the entire Eskom board must follow Jabu Mabuza and resign.
Cosatu unions
By Saturday, several Cosatu unions, including the National Union of Mineworkers, added their voices to the call for Gordhan to go, and on Sunday the National Union of Metalworkers of SA did the same, demanding also that Eskom be moved to the department of mineral resources & energy.
ANC Women’s League president Bathabile Dlamini also joined the fray on Saturday, saying she would campaign for the government to move Eskom away from the department of public enterprises to the department of energy.
"You can’t have the strategy of energy in one department and in another department have Eskom having a different strategy," Dlamini told the Sunday Times.
The SA Communist Party (SACP), which has been a strong defender of Gordhan’s work in his fight against state capture, said it had noted the calls for his removal but had not yet met to discuss it.
Spokesperson Alex Mashilo said the next meetings of the SACP, which is in an alliance with the ANC and Cosatu, would evaluate the progress of its campaign against state capture and "for SOEs to be turned around to thrive in order to serve the needs of our people and national development effectively".
Also giving shape to these dynamics is the upcoming ANC national general council (NGC).
The NGC is the ANC’s mid-term evaluation of its progress since the 2017 national conference.
Ramaphosa is certain to come under pressure as
key ANC factions and personalities mobilise their support
bases ahead of the 2022 national conference. The failure to turn around SOEs and the state of Eskom are set to become key issues for discussion.
At the ANC’s 108th birthday celebration on Saturday, the ANC once again had to acknowledge the difficulties faced by SOEs over the weekend in Kimberley in the Northern Cape.
The celebration on Saturday was dwarfed by the dire situation at Eskom, which saw board chair Jabu Mabuza resign on the eve of the event to take responsibility for failing to prevent rotational blackouts early in January.
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