Former mayor Florence Radzilani (Andrew Hlongwane/Daily Sun/Gallo)
While Limpopo premier Stan Mathabatha is said to have received a six-month reprieve from the ANC’s top brass over his role in internal party strife, his deputy Florence Radzilani will have to fight for her political survival in the coming weeks, insiders say.
The party’s national working committee (NWC) was camped in the province over the weekend, holding marathon meetings with party members and structures which centred on whether Mathabatha should be fired.
According to insiders, although ANC branches called for Mathabatha’s head after he defied them by endorsing Zweli Mkhize for the post of ANC president on the eve of voting at December’s Nasrec elective conference, the provincial executive committee was of the view that his axing would destabilise the province close to the 2024 general elections.
One high-ranking ANC leader in Limpopo said the party needed to be mindful that the province was one of the most stable and rocking the boat before the elections could further jeopardise the party’s chances as it faces the threat of losing its electoral majority for the first time since 1994.
The insider said there was also a feeling among those aligned with Mathabatha that the newly elected national executive committee members who failed to get elected during the Limpopo elective conference were using their newfound status to attempt to dissolve the provincial executive committee (PEC).
However, the head of Mathabatha’s deputy Radzilani is said to still be on the chopping block, owing to her alleged involvement in the graft around the now defunct Venda Mutual Bank Society (VBS).
While she was mayor of Vhembe, Radzilani was implicated in the looting of VBS after her municipality illegally deposited funds in the liquidated bank.
To make matters worse for her, Radzilani joined Mathabatha in defying ANC branches by attempting to influence delegates to vote for Mkhize at the December conference.
According to the party insiders, the PEC is not willing to fight for her, after she gave the impression that the decision to withdraw support for President Cyril Ramaphosa at the eleventh hour was taken with its approval.
During the Nasrec conference, Radzilani was seen on widely circulated videos addressing Limpopo delegates and informing them Mkhize was the province’s candidate. Other video clips showed Mathabatha addressing KwaZulu-Natal candidates, pledging his support for Mkhize.
Radzilani later told news channel Newzroom Afrika that Limpopo’s provincial and regional structures felt rejected by the Ramaphosa lobby group because Mathabatha was not on the president’s slate and had thus decided to talk to other provinces.
Limpopo had previously endorsed Ramaphosa as ANC president, Paul Mashatile as his deputy, Mathabatha as chairperson and Nomvula Mokonyane as deputy secretary general.
“You can’t communicate a contrary decision to that of the PEC, even if there could have been discussions that there is a possible shifting, but it was for the PEC to make that decision, and not for her to give an impression as if it was a decision of the PEC, which it was not,” the party insider said.
They added that the veterans’ league was also of the view that those implicated in the VBS scandal should not be allowed to have leadership positions in government.
Shortly after Radzilani was reelected to the provincial leadership, Mathabatha reshuffled his executive council to appoint her as Limpopo’s member of the executive council for transport and community safety.
The insiders who spoke to the Mail & Guardian said the veterans argued that Radzilani and others implicated in the VBS scandal were being rewarded.
“The NWC committed that they are not going to budge on the VBS challenges. The issue of VBS must be dealt with decisively and it be closed. I’m afraid that maybe now that is zooming into the conduct of the deputy chair for her role during that tenure,” one said.
Another PEC leader said the reemergence of the VBS issue indicated that decisive action should be taken against leaders who were implicated and that there was also a demand by the youth league to be included in Mathabatha’s cabinet.
“The reality of the matter is that the PEC is too confrontational. At the last three meetings we had since we came back from Nasrec there has not been the spirit of unity. The unity is only displayed now because of a fear of being dissolved. That, look, let’s give a united face even though we’re fully aware that we do have pockets of serious issues,” they said.
“The provincial chair seems to be losing legitimacy. There’s just mistrust, not only to branches. The reality of the matter [is that] the chairperson and the deputy chairperson are now perceived as people who sold [out the] branches, people who went against the mandate of branches.”
Provincial leaders who were present at the meeting held between the PEC and the NWC said Mathabatha fought for his job, delivering a political overview which highlighted some of his achievements in government.
“He narrated the story that before the ANC gave him the responsibility to come and stabilise the province, the province was in a bad state and its financial health was in crisis, with high levels of corruption,” one said.
“I believe that he was pleading his case by showing how the provincial department moved from disclaimer to clean audit. He also spoke to improvements of municipalities from disclaimer to unqualified audits and how he looked after the coffers of the province.”
The insider added that Mathabatha emphasised how the province had improved its health facilities.
“He admitted that the state of our provincial roads is not pleasing but, because the PEC resolved to have engagements with public works and Roads Agency Limpopo to make an assessment, where are we going wrong? How can we move an inch between now and possibly before the national elections?”