The battle for the soul of the ANC is heating up ahead of the party’s elective conference in December, with the “radical economic transformation” (RET) faction — the faction opposed to President Cyril Ramaphosa — making clear it will fight to the end, even if this means the ANC losing the next general election in 2024.
Over the past few weeks the RET faction has scored some victories in two provincial structures: Mpumalanga and in KwaZulu-Natal’s eThekwini region.
The Mpumalanga ANC, which has been leaderless since David “DD” Mabuza became the party’s deputy president in 2017, elected double murder accused and former provincial MEC Mandla Msibi as provincial treasurer, while a Ramaphosa ally, Mandla Ndlovu, was elected provincial chair.
The eThekwini region of the ANC, one of the province’s biggest and most consequential in electing the party’s provincial leadership, elected corruption-accused Zandile Gumede as its chair, placing her in a key position to determine who runs the party and state in the province ahead of the general election.
The president’s faction — the “new dawn” devotees — had appeared to be gaining the upper hand in the party after capturing the state machinery by rewarding loyalists like former speaker Thandi Modise (now defence minister), Mondli Gungubele (minister in the presidency, now also in charge of intelligence) and Enoch Godongwana (finance) with key positions during last year’s cabinet reshuffle.
These upbeat readings have proved premature and misleading. While the Ramaphosa faction might have gained total control of the levers of power in government, it has yet to capture the soul of the party.
The renewal campaign — Ramaphosa’s bid to clean the party of its corrupt image to shore up its electoral fortunes — is facing stiff resistance from within the party. The early manifestation of this resistance found expression through delays in implementing the so-called step-aside conference resolution. This resolution, adopted at the ANC’s 2017 conference, was an attempt to cleanse the party of its reputation for corruption through asking, and if necessary forcing, those accused of corruption to step aside from official party duties until they’ve been cleared.
The rule’s application is cumbersome: first, the accused need to present themselves to the party’s integrity commission, and then if their version is not satisfactory they are asked to step aside voluntarily. If they refuse, they are suspended. A case in point is party secretary-general Ace Magashule, who is facing corruption charges stemming from his tenure as Free State premier. It took the party months to force him to step aside.
Like Gumede, Msibi accepted nomination to serve in party structures, won in absentia and then stepped aside.
What has complicated issues for ordinary ANC members is the inconsistent application of the step-aside rule. For example, Jacob Zuma, Ramaphosa’s predecessor in both the party and the state, has not stopped attending party activities, including meetings of the ANC’s national executive committee (NEC), despite facing criminal charges and serving a prison term for ignoring a subpoena to appear before the Zondo commission of inquiry into state capture.
Also, almost a month after being convicted of perjury, former social development minister and ANC Women’s League president Bathabile Dlamini has yet to step aside from her party duties, including as an official at the party’s Luthuli House headquarters.
The two conferences have exposed a loophole in the step-aside rule: branches can nominate and elect any ANC members, including those facing serious allegations, for party posts, and the implicated officials can accept nomination and be elected without attending the conference.
When he was addressing the closing session of the Mpumalanga conference, Ramaphosa asked delegates to reflect on the outcome of the gathering. This was widely interpreted as a reference to Msibi’s election. Ramaphosa’s faction is frustrated by what it perceives to be a regression and mixed signals being sent to ordinary party members.
In an interview with Business Day this week, justice minister and ANC NEC member Ronald Lamola, a Ramaphosa enforcer, signalled that this loophole will be closed before the December elective conference. He suggested the party’s NEC — not conference — will move to prevent implicated members from standing and contesting for positions.
Of course, this will depend on whether Ramaphosa’s faction in the NEC wins this fight. Lamola said: “At least the positive is that the elected person (facing criminal allegations) cannot assume responsibility, but it does affect the running of the organisation.”
The president’s faction in the NEC has been relatively successful in reforming the party. Progress has included using party veterans to run disciplinary structures. This change has the potential of shielding disciplinary action from factional manipulation.
Closing the loophole is likely to be harder than it seems. If the NEC agrees on a total ban of implicated party members being nominated to contest party positions, it will sit with the dilemma of whether it has to force those who have already been elected, like Gumede and Msibi, to step aside voluntarily.
The anti-Ramaphosa faction is likely to object on the basis that it is being effectively forced out of the party. For Ramaphosa’s faction the nightmare scenario inherent in a failure to totally ban implicated members from contesting positions is that his nemesis, Magashule, might — in theory and in practice — be nominated and elected to any position (including his current post) at the conference in December and lead the party into the general election in 2024.
• Dludlu, a former Sowetan editor, is CEO of the Small Business Institute.
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