Resolute: Human settlements minister, and ANC deputy president hopeful, Mmamokolo Kubayi says she’s never depended on the Ramaphosa team for support. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)
Despite having been sidelined by President Cyril Ramaphosa’s campaign team for the position of ANC deputy president, Mmamokolo Kubayi is adamant she will not back down from the race for the top-six position.
Kubayi was thought of as the blue-eyed girl in Ramaphosa’s cabinet. Her appointment to the ANC economic transformation committee, a key position in the party’s policy agenda, was considered part of the president’s strategy to raise her profile ahead of next month’s elective conference.
She was also thought by some ANC leaders to have been handpicked by Ramaphosa to run alongside him for the ANC deputy president position. However, this was thwarted when the Ramaphosa campaign — now known as Renewal22 — chose to put its weight behind Senzo Mchunu.
The decision by the Ramaphosa team — headed by Mondli Gungubele and Derek Hanekom — to field late entrants has led to heated debate among the Renwal22 allies, with some provinces vowing to defy the chosen slate.
A vocal supporter of Ramaphosa, Kubayi will be going up against frontrunner Paul Mashatile, who has already received the thumbs-up from six provinces, as well as the ANC Youth League’s national task team.
Kubayi failed to receive endorsement from either the provinces or the youth and women’s leagues.
While she could be viewed as flogging a dead horse, she told Mail & Guardian she had no plans to drop out of the race.
“I do believe that I’ve made the ballot now, as we speak. So, that is not what I’m worried about — ballot reaching — I do believe that I’ve made it through the nomination of the branches,” she said.
“I think it has been that I’ve been consistent in terms of my work in government. Where, if given the responsibility, I do my best, I give it my all, and work and perform. So, I’ve thrown my energy into working and serving this government and serving the ANC.
“I don’t think I’m being rejected. One, the rule says there shouldn’t be slates. If you are a person coming into a position like this, and people think that you actually have been handpicked, you lose your authority, you lose a sense of pride.”
“I’ve tested the direct trust of members of the ANC on Mmamoloko, as a person, as a member of the ANC and as a person they believe should lead.
“If I was clustered with everybody else, I would have the illusion that I’m supported. Maybe it could have been because I’m in this group. I think for me, where I’m sitting, this is the ideal situation,” she said.
She added that she had never depended on the Ramaphosa machinery to run her campaign.
“They were never part of the people who said to me, ‘Contest.’”
Kubayi was dealt a blow on Monday when the ANC Women’s League task team overlooked her, picking instead Thandi Modise as its preferred candidate for the ANC deputy president position.
Kubayi received only four votes from the 65 members who voted, with Modise taking the bulk of the women’s support at 43 votes.
Just days before the league voted on who they would support, Kubayi told M&G that, even if she failed to get their nod, she was confident of getting support from women in other structures.
While Kubayi has professed that she would be unfazed by the decision, her campaign has been largely reliant on the support of women within the ANC. She launched her campaign in Johannesburg during a women’s league event centred around a gender-diverse ANC leadership theme.
“As I’m saying, I’m comfortable that I’ve met the threshold. It will be good to have the support of the women’s league but, if it’s not there, it’s not the end of the world because contesting is not dependent on them.”
Having to contend with male comrades in a “patriarchal party” has been one of her biggest challenges, along with lack of money and resources, she said.
She had faced a situation where she was asked to withdraw and had refused to do so.
“The only problem is that I’m not a man … Whatever it takes, I’m not giving up.
“I’m not going to withdraw. I’m going to the guillotine until the end.”
Kubayi was first appointed as a state minister by former president Jacob Zuma. She became the energy minister at the height of the heated political debate around the proposed nuclear deal in 2017.
As a young entrant in the cabinet, Kubayi’s appointment was perceived as Zuma’s last-ditch effort to influence the department to ram through the nuclear deal, which the country could not afford.
She said the perception that she was a Zuma loyalist was a misunderstanding, adding that she had transitioned from that image.
“I did not disagree with nuclear. I disagreed with the process and I was vocal about it.”
She added her voice to the growing debate in the ANC on Eskom, arguing that the power utility should be moved to energy minister Gwede Mantashe’s portfolio. Kubayi said she also believed the public enterprises ministry should be closed.
This has been a bone of contention in the ANC and a growing debate as Mantashe and public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan are widely viewed as being pitted against one another in a battle over control of Eskom.
The debate in the governing party about the possibility of Eskom being shifted to Mantashe’s department was also tabled at this year’s policy conference but failed to find expression among delegates.
In a previous interview with the M&G, Mantashe hinted that Eskom would be best placed under the energy ministry but he emphasised that this decision could only be made by Ramaphosa.
“All I can say is that a crisis point managed in a fragmented way makes it more complicated. That’s all I’m saying. It may be here, it may be anywhere, but the consolidated management of that crisis space is required,” he said.
Kubayi said the Eskom shift was “long overdue” adding that the debate should be extended to the enterprises department as a whole.
“What would be important is, if you move Eskom into energy, you’ve got the regulatory authority sitting in that portfolio. So, we have to make sure that we don’t have the contradictions and the clash between the regulatory environment and the implementing agent.”
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