Deputy health minister Joe Phaahla has rejected claims that he is part of a plan within the ANC national executive committee (NEC) to oust President Cyril Ramaphosa, calling the allegations “utter rubbish and pure hogwash”.
Media reports at the weekend suggested growing murmurs within the ANC that Ramaphosa was “in the departure lounge”, prompting the ANC Youth League, Women’s League and Veterans League to publicly rally behind him.
The denial by Phaahla, who is also part of the NEC, comes before the party’s national general council next week, at which rival factions are expected to test the waters before the next elective conference in 2027.
“I regard the claims that I am plotting to oust President Cyril Ramaphosa as utter rubbish and pure hogwash,” Phaahla said.
“These fabrications are the work of desperate individuals attempting to drive a wedge between myself, as an NEC member and lifelong activist of the ANC for nearly five decades, and my president,” Phaahla said.
The December NEC, the ANC’s formal mid-term assessment of its leadership and policy direction, is widely seen as a barometer of internal support for Ramaphosa.
“We are closing ranks. We call on our members and the ANC to close ranks. These are stories that are plotted deliberately by forces from within and outside our movement who are hellbent on disintegrating the ANC,” ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula said after a special meeting of the ANC NEC on Monday.
“People of South Africa are not interested in the issues of leadership and leadership squabbles and all of that. We don’t have a problem of leadership. One was led by our president, and he’s been tested.”
The ANC leagues accused those circulating the claims of orchestrating “malicious and destabilising narratives” aimed at derailing the movement’s renewal agenda.
“We therefore reject with contempt the baseless claims that there are any plans to recall President Cyril Ramaphosa,” Youth League secretary-general Mntuwoxolo Ngudle said.
“These fabrications seek to weaken and derail the ANC precisely as we approach the fifth national general council, where the organisation will rigorously assess progress, refine our strategy and tactics, and develop solutions to confront the socioeconomic challenges facing the nation.
“We must remember that the NEC was duly elected in 2022. The results were not contested. We have no provisions for recalling or overthrowing a duly elected NEC.
“If we in the ANC do not have confidence in our leadership, how do we expect our people to have confidence in them? Such a call, 11 months before the local government elections, will lead to a certain defeat at the polls and a collapse of the ANC,” said ANC Veterans League president Snuki Zikalala.
Similarly, the Women’s League also rallied behind Ramaphosa, with the league’s secretary-general, Nokuthula Nqaba, saying: “The ANC Women’s League would like to caution against those who meet in dark corners and connive for the demise of the president, which is detrimental to the renewal of the ANC and clean governance which the president is advocating.”
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