Despite the Phala Phala burglary scandal still hanging over him, President Cyril Ramaphosa’s office all but confirmed he will run for a second term as ANC president at the party’s national elective conference in December.
“I have not heard a president that is about to give up on pushing ahead with the reforms he has led [and] which are beginning to bear fruit,” his spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said on Monday. The president will continue to lead the capacitation of the state, the building of the economy, tackling unemployment and fighting corruption and state capture, he said.
A Financial Mail report in August said Ramaphosa considered resigning during the Phala Phala scandal. A number of state security organs are investigating claims of a cover-up after a large sum of foreign exchange was allegedly stolen from his farmhouse in Limpopo.
His political opponents within and outside the ANC are clamouring for him to step aside to facilitate a thorough investigation into the matter. Should he be charged for any offence, Ramaphosa might have to step aside anyway as per the party’s rules. Nominations for the national positions open on Wednesday.
Those close to the president have described the claims as part of the pushback by some of his opponents in the ANC, who are facing threats of prosecution for their involvement in state capture during former president Jacob Zuma’s nine years in office.
Former head of the State Security Agency (SSA) Arthur Fraser reported the matter to the police. Fraser himself was implicated in the state capture report by chief justice Raymond Zondo.
Ramaphosa, who has said unity of the ANC cannot be used to justify criminality, was elected on a reform ticket as party president in 2017. He was criticised by the state capture inquiry for not being proactive enough in preventing the wholesale looting of the state as Zuma’s deputy.
Former Transnet executives Brian Molefe and Anoj Singh were arrested last week on fraud and corruption charges. Also in the dock for alleged graft is suspended ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule. According to evidence led at the state capture inquiry, all were proponents of the state capture project.
Zuma’s faction suffered a humiliating defeat in 2017, after a poor showing in the 2016 local government elections. The ANC has since forced all its leaders, including former eThekwini mayor Zandile Gumede, to vacate office until the outcome of criminal proceedings in which they have been implicated.
Political analysts still applaud the Ramaphosa administration’s effort to reform the ANC and the state, but with caveats.
“There have been some significant successes in terms of reform but the Phala Phala scandal has damaged his public image and if Ramaphosa was genuine about renewal he would be using his political capital to position a worthy successor,” political analyst Ongama Mtimka said.
Analyst Ralph Mathekga says how Ramaphosa runs his campaign for re-election is very important.
“On what condition will he get the second term in the ANC: on the condition that his anticorruption agenda goes ahead or on the condition he tapers down on the reform and anticorruption agenda?” Mathekga asked.
With the ANC having suffered its biggest electoral losses in the 2021 local government elections, the ANC’s rank and file will weigh in on Ramaphosa’s fate from the end of this week.
Two weeks ago Kgalema Motlanthe, chair of the ANC electoral committee, outlined the committee’s main priorities, which are ensuring that candidates boost capacity and integrity and resonate with broader society.
“The nominations of the ANC are the province of branches, that is why delegates to an elective conference are mainly delegates from branches. In fact, 90% of voting delegates at any conference of the ANC must be delegates from branches,” he said.
After nominations, Motlanthe explained, the party will announce three frontrunners for each of the top six positions.
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