The ANC's inner turmoil has been spilling out into the open for some time now. It is clear that it is divided and that the key fault line jags its way to President Jacob Zuma's office.
There are those who support Zuma and those who don't.
What is new is the open hostility that has begun to emerge in the public space.
The ANC's youth and women's leagues have spoken out against the continued tenure of the finance minister, Pravin Gordhan, openly calling for the Treasury to be transformed into a political machine which serves their purposes.
Given that they are not very well disguised proxies for the Gupta empire, those purposes are unlikely to coincide with the best interests of the nation.
A special National Executive Committee meeting is taking place today and EWN is quoting unnamed members of this committee as saying they will urge that Gordhan be dismissed.
Zuma, they are saying under the cloak of anonimity, must "have the guts to fire the minister, even if the rand falls".
Meanwhile, the Independent group reports that Gauteng has risen to Gordhan's defence, saying he has done 'sterling' work for the Treasury. (It is not immediately clear if the pun was deliberate.)
It is not just within the party that this divide is showing. The Gauteng government, under Premier David Makhura, has come under pressure over the Esidimeni 94 from within the party.
And then, also today, Makhura has sent the e-toll problem back to national government, saying the province can do nothing to repair the damaged system.
His words, reported by TMG Digital, were:
"We have tried our best. The ultimate solution can only come from national level. We will continue to engage in order to represent the interests of our residents."
Describing e-tolls as a "failed" system, he pledged to residents:
"We will ensure that we don’t commit the same mistakes done with the e-tolls. We can’t build roads and only later inform citizens that they must pay. In fact‚ there will no e-tolls on our new roads."
What is unravelling here is not just a party political construct. The fact is that national and provincial government are no longer on the same page in Gauteng and the Western Cape, which has been under DA management for some time.
This trend will continue into the future, testing the limits of federalism as spelt out in the constitution.
Expect the national government to claw back as much power as it can and expect these provinces to respond in like fashion, perhaps eventually bringing about a constitutional crisis of sorts.
The warfare within the ANC is also likely to sharpen as the election of a successor to Zuma draws ever nearer, with the party split between Cyril Ramaphosa (Gauteng, SACP, Cosatu) and Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma (leagues, KwaZulu-Natal and other provinces).
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