Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi. (File photo)
Senior sources in the ANC believe the attacks on Gauteng chairperson Panyaza Lesufi by the party’s secretary general, Fikile Mbalula, are indirectly aimed at deputy president Paul Mashatile as the party gears up for the 2027 elective conference.
They say Mbalula is eyeing either the position of president or deputy president, while the ANC in Gauteng is set to throw its weight behind Mashatile to become the country’s first citizen.
An ANC national working committee (NWC) member told the Mail & Guardian that Lesufi was “not a threat to Mbalula”, but he may be used in a “proxy fight” between Mashatile and Mbalula.
The source said Lesufi was not popular enough outside Gauteng to contest Mbalula for a position in the top seven at the 2027 elective conference.
“All of us know that Panyaza is just a populist. He never stands for anything, He has no loyalty to anything. Even those who had supported him previously would tell you that this man is a coward,” the NWC member said.
“The issue here is not about contestation. Panyaza is really not that popular outside Gauteng [as far as contesting goes]. The issue is these guys wanting to protect territory for their own political interests.
“Panyaza’s group and [finance MEC] Lebogang’s [Maile] group have been fighting and it can’t be seen that they are one thing now. If Mbalula is fighting, the analysis can be drawn that it is a proxy fight between him and Paul [Mashatile],” the NWC member said.
Maile’s faction is dominant in the province. Iit has been able to regroup after he was narrowly defeated by Lesufi (575 to 543 votes) in the battle for ANC chair at the Gauteng elective conference.
ANC insiders say that for all of Lesufi’s public profile, it is Maile and his faction that calls the shots in the province.
The NWC source said they were aware that there were elements in Gauteng who were set on undermining president Cyril Ramaphosa to make him “seem weak and to topple him” after the next ANC conference. This would result in Ramaphosa being unable to finish his term of office.
The source said some Gauteng leaders were against the government of national unity (GNU), and were “trying to create a narrative so that they can say ‘we are being purged and attacked because we have a different political view’”.
“The plan from these guys who are anti-GNU was to say when we go to the ANC national general council [NGC], they must portray the president as weak and this is what they are working with the uMKhonto weSizwe party on, so that the NGC can reflect on the NEC [national executive committee] and say the president has become the worst president and therefore let’s recall [him],” the NWC source said.
But, said the source, “there is no chance” that they will be successful in doing so.
“In terms of authority and influence, there is no way that the GNU can be threatened. Maybe you can say it is to come at conference level, but right now none of the guys including Paul [Mashatile] can threaten GNU, not now.”
Luthuli House has been clear that discussions about succession will not be tolerated at this point, with Mbalula adamant in recent public statements that it will be “suppressed” by his office.
At a recent media briefing he said the preoccupation about who becomes the ANC’s next leader could not be entertained on the back of a dismal election result.
“We come from a horrible, terrible and disastrous election campaign that gave us 40% and the first thing we think about is who becomes the leader after president Ramaphosa. It can’t be,” he said.
Mbalula’s upfront approach of going toe-to-toe with those who want to undermine the status quo was making people in Gauteng “uncomfortable”, the source said.
“The tantrums [are] because Mbalula fights directly unlike CR [Ramaphosa]. it could be that he takes the punches more than CR. These guys might want to continue to fuel a narrative that this leadership has failed under CR so that when we arrive at the conference, people are unhappy.”
While the Gauteng leadership has been accused of rebelling against decisions of the national leadership with regard to who it works with at provincial and municipal level, the source said they had consulted the NWC and had been given the go-ahead for the stance they had adopted.
The ANC recently formed a pact with ActionSA to oust Democratic Alliance mayor Cilliers Brink in Tshwane, a move the DA said would risk the unity of the GNU nationally. ActionSA has also chosen to constitute a minority government at provincial level, rather than working with the DA as the ANC has done nationally.
“They have come, consulted and they were told, they have been transparent, it was the decision of the NWC that they must proceed in Tshwane,” the NWC member said.
A senior Gauteng leader, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Lesufi had not raised his hand for any national leadership position and that the province was not talking about this.
The leader said there was a move to “de-campaign” Lesufi because of his popularity and was a voice for anti-GNU elements in the ANC, and that people had misread this as him presenting himself as a potential presidential candidate for 2027.
He said that if the province were to endorse any candidate for 2027 it would be Mashatile.
“I don’t think at the time we are going to have a discussion [on who we support] we will ignore the name of the sitting deputy president and want to go for another name except that one.”
“He is from Gauteng, enjoying support of the current leadership including the same support of the very same Panyaza they want to characterise as a candidate. If Panyaza wants to be an office bearer, what would he be saying about Paul Mashatile?” the Gauteng leader said.
“People are just deliberately fighting against Paul but using those that they know support Paul in Gauteng as a way of trying to say ‘how do we capture Gauteng so that we dislodge Paul?’ People might say the battle is against Panyaza but it’s against Paul.”
“Where I am seated, Panyaza might want to campaign for Paul to be president because the current president is serving his last term. I don’t think he might raise a hand and say ‘I don’t want Paul to enter, let me enter and Paul must wait’.”
The leader said it was a DA demand and not unwillingness on the part of the ANC in Gauteng that had collapsed the talks aimed at creating a government of provincial unity.
He said that after the DA initially voted for Lesufi as premier, talks faltered after the party demanded a proportional split of portfolios and the exclusion of the Economic Freedom Fighters from the coalition.
The source said the DA had initially agreed to take the speaker’s post in the legislature and cabinet seats, but that the deal fell apart after DA federal chair Helen Zille got involved in the negotiations because she believed that what the ANC was offering was unfair.
The ANC leadership and upper structures later gave its provincial structures the go ahead to form a coalition without the DA, which had publicly declared that it was abandoning the negotiations.
“The reason we did not work with them is that Helen Zille was making unreasonable demands. What is also not being said is that there was a deal between Gauteng ANC and DA. When the national DA got involved, they rejected that deal which was reached by provincial leadership,” the Gauteng leader said.
“The discussions in Gauteng were led by national. They were not led by Panyaza to cook what suits him. The reason we did not work with them is that Helen Zille was making unreasonable demands.
“They want to portray it as if the Gauteng leadership boycotted the DA and deliberately sabotaged working with the DA in an attempt to sabotage the GNU. Those pushing a narrative that Panyaza and TK [Nciza] don’t want to work with the DA are being malicious.
“The DA and the ANC could have simply formed a coalition given the national relations of the GNU. It would have more numbers than other parties and the coalition could have been more stable because it was just two parties.”
ANC national spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri said she was not aware of any of the party leaders involved in campaigning against one another for the 2027 elective conference.
Shei said the party was on record that its focus was on service delivery and for the ANC-led GNU to deliver services.
“Our focus is to make sure that the government works and works with speed to deliver services to our people,” she said.
“If there is any leader that is campaigning, they are definitely defining themselves outside of the discipline of the ANC.”