Outgoing West Rand regional secretary Sanele Ngweventsha has placed his weight behind Panyaza Lesufi arguing that his public profile, political background as well as his education will make him the right man to lead the province as it faces a dip below 50% in the coming elections.
Ngweventsha who is expected to take another term as the party’s regional secretary is part of the regional leadership group in Gauteng lobbying for Lesufi to become the provincial chair.
Lesufi is expected to go head to head against the provincial executive committee member Lebogang Maile.
Lesufi is among the most popular MECs in the country having used his previous experience as a spokesperson to maximise his time in office in the public space.
His popularity as the MEC for education was evident when premier David Makhura redeployed him as finance MEC shortly after the 2019 elections. The move was highly criticised, forcing Makhura to reconsider.
Ngweventsha believes that Panyaza’s popularity among the citizens of Gauteng could be the ammunition the ANC uses to prevent a possible dip in support in the 2024 general elections.
“In the ANC we have what we call a succession plan. You must get prepared for the position. Nothing personal against Maile, we just think Panyaza is ready even on how he is rooted on the ground. If you talk Maile and Panyaza to ordinary citizens, they will say, we know Panyaza given his programmes at school as the MEC, that is what informs the demand.”
Ngweventsha has also pointed to the youthfulness of Panyaza, adding that Gauteng needed to adapt to the global dynamics where younger leaders emerge.
The ANC in Gauteng suffered a humiliating defeat in the 2021 local government elections having lost all three metros in the province to Democratic Alliance-led alliances.
The possibility that the ANC may incur further losses in the next general elections has meant that the party is forced to look beyond its inward tendency or its core constituency.
Ngweventsha adds that this is a culture that must be developed in the province. He said that the provincial leaders are developing a baseline document to address such matters.
“We are developing a culture that conferences cannot be about individuals, we must have a programme. We will not miss that point. We are reconvening branches to understand where we want to go,” he said.
All of the Gauteng regions are expected to go to their regional conferences this weekend.
The West Rand will likely take 63 branches to the provincial conference, most of which are expected to vote for Panyazai.
The West Rand is also hoping to have a presence in the provincial leadership through former regional chair Boyce Maneli or health MEC Nomathemba Mokgethi who have been touted to have ambitions of becoming deputy provincial chairs.
In February, the ANC’s national dispute resolution committee (NDRC) overturned a decision by the Gauteng provincial integrity committee (PIC) ordering a former West Rand mayor and Maneli to step aside.
Maneli and former Merafong mayor Maphefo Mogale-Letsie were ordered to stand down from their respective positions as MP and MPL after the committee found that the two executives failed in their responsibility in relation to the VBS Mutual Bank scandal.
Fourteen municipalities — in Limpopo, North West and Gauteng — lost nearly R1.6-billion after illegally investing with the bank.
The dispute resolution committee found that the order to the two provincial leaders was severe. It urged the ANC to look at clarifying to its structures the roles of executive oversight and authority, saying that these remained ambiguous.
While Ngweventsha refused to share his thoughts on the national leadership contest, he said that the province is united in its view on treasurer-general Paul Mashatile.
Mashatile and his allies have been labelled kingmakers with the understanding that they are building up momentum for his rise to become deputy president.
While the West Rand has been plagued with allegations of corruption in municipalities governed by the ANC with some being implicated in the VBS Bank scandal, Ngweventsha has defended the ANC in the region in relation to its response to it.
Ngweventsha told the Mail & Guardian that the ANC did not fold its arms during the scandal but acted swiftly to remove those implicated in it. He said the loss of Mogale City during the 2021 local elections was not a result of corruption.
“When you talk about taking the lives of people of West Rand seriously, part of my role is to oversee the caucus. I don’t remember any municipality that collapsed under my watch, no municipality collapsed under our hands. We are clued up with our issues.
“The district development model is a West Rand thing and now it’s adopted nationally. It’s us who wanted to have more of a unicity in 2016 but the law didn’t accommodate us on that. It is us who said the smaller municipalities don’t really work; the stability we achieved and services to our people, with challenges of course.”
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