As the ANC’s national working committee (NWC) began its deliberations on parliament’s section 89 panel report on the Phala Phala saga on Sunday afternoon, those in the party who are aggrieved with President Cyril Ramaphosa are calling for his head.
In his first public appearance since the report was released, a confident and smiling Ramaphosa told reporters outside Nasrec ahead of the NWC meeting: “I will account to the National Executive Committee (NEC). It is that body that is empowered to take a decision.”
He said he had recused himself from the NWC meeting so it could interrogate the matter. He showed his face and left the meeting.
The panel appointed by parliament and headed by retired chief justice Sandile Ngcobo found that Ramaphosa may have a case to answer for committing a serious violation of the constitution.
While initial indications were that Ramaphosa wanted to hand in his resignation and make a public announcement, it has since been established that his allies in the ANC and government have asked him to stay and fight. The latest is that he will be taking the panel report on review.
On Sunday, while protesting outside the meeting venue of the NWC at Nasrec, former president Jacob Zuma’s ally Carl Niehaus accused the NEC of not having the guts to remove Ramaphosa. He believes Ramaphosa has plunged the party into disrepute given the findings of the independent panel.
“This dithering NEC of the ANC must find the backbone to fire Ramaphosa and regain the dignity of the country,” Niehaus said.
His protest was challenged by pro-Ramaphosa supporters who said, “Cyril is not going”.
Among the first to fire a salvo for Ramaphosa to go was former ANC Women’s League president Bathabile Dlamini. “He must not step aside, he must resign. He has compromised himself, he has compromised the ANC and the country,” Dlamini said.
Meanwhile, ANC presidential contender and co-operative governance and traditional affairs minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma has called for Ramaphosa to “step aside”. Taking to Twitter, she said: “I think the president has to step aside now and answer to the case.”
She quickly came under fire from ANC spokesperson Pule Mabe, who said she had no right to speak as she did not represent the ANC.
With just 11 days to the ANC elective conference, the race for the post of party president is being contested by Ramaphosa, who is seeking a second term, and former health minister Zweli Mkhize. Mkhize was fingered in the Digital Vibes scandal and stepped aside. He was never charged. Mkhize’s supporters feel that Ramaphosa must in a similar fashion step aside.
At the weekend, Mkhize addressed the ANC Youth League task team at Langa in Cape Town which supports his run for the party’s presidency. “If it’s corruption there will be a lot of noise, if it’s so and so; there is less noise if it’s so and so. We are saying it’s a problem of factionalism.
“This liberation doesn’t belong to ANC members, it belongs to the people who fought, who lost relatives, those over the years who spent time trying to improve their lives in fighting apartheid,” added Mkhize.
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