Huge pressure has been put on ousted Free State premier Patrick Lekota to abandon the provincial leadership battle, angering ANC members. Rehana Rossouw reports from the turbulent province
PRESIDENT Nelson Mandela this week offered Patrick “Terror” Lekota a Cabinet post if, for the sake of party unity, he agreed to withdraw from the contest for chairman of the Free State province, according to party insiders.
The announcement late on Thursday that Lekota is to join the Senate is thought to be a stepping stone to a ministerial post.
The Cabinet offer is said to have been made to Lekota during a private meeting as Mandela sought to end the internal African National Congress power struggles which have brought political chaos to the Free State
Mandela announced late on Thursday that Lekota will be joining the Senate – soon to become the Council of Provinces – as a “respected ANC member”. Since ministers can only be drawn from the ranks of MPs, this is a likely staging post to higher office.
In another development earlier this week, leading ANC members in the province say that the National Executive Committee (NEC) ordered Lekota not to make himself available in the coming elections for Free State premier or regional chairman.
News about the order has spread rapidly in the Free State and Lekota supporters are warning that they will make the province “ungovernable” if it is enforced.
Across the Free State, ANC members are gearing up to contest the positions which became vacant two weeks ago when the NEC decided Lekota, his cabinet and the entire ANC provincial executive committee should resign.
While there is broad acceptance for the NEC’s decision and for the task group it appointed to oversee provincial conference preparations, the week’s developments have confirmed the suspicions of many Lekota supporters that there are moves to oust him permanently from the Free State.
They say that ANC branches should be involved in the process of electing a premier to ensure a popular choice.
The ANC has gagged its Free State members from talking to the media on pain of disciplinary action, but many ordinary members who believe their viewpoints have been ignored by the ANC’s national leadership spoke out this week.
Some took bizarre precautions to ensure they would not be discovered breaking the gagging order. In Welkom, members gave elaborate instructions for a meeting place, parked their cars two blocks away and changed the venue of the meeting at the last minute.
When asked whether this was really necessary, one of them laughed wryly and said: “I never thought I would need to use these tactics again. At least I haven’t lost my old skills.”
But the member, who had held a senior position in the Free State ANC, explained the reasons for their paranoia.
“We have discovered that the NEC has instructed Terror not to stand in the elections for premier and chairperson of the Free State ANC,” he claimed.
“We believe branches will nominate Terror for premier with overwhelming support, but when he’s asked if he’s available, he might say no if the NEC manages to convince him that he won’t have a future in the organisation if he doesn’t toe the line.
“If the NEC does not allow Terror to exercise his democratic rights and stand for the election, it could have serious implications for the organisation. This is no [Bantu] Holomisa, they have formulated no charges against him that we know of and they have not found him guilty of anything.”
In Bloemfontein, sources close to Lekota added to the fears that he would not be allowed to contest his position. They had also heard he was being pressurised to withdraw from the race.
“We hope he is going to resist them, we will rally as much support for him as we can. They have no right to do this, it’s as though they have judged him already and found that he is guilty,” a source said.
ANC members in Bothaville, a small town 170km north of Bloemfontein, believe they are Lekota’s most ardent supporters and are prepared to take on their entire leadership to ensure he is treated fairly.
“While we believe it’s important our voices are heard, it’s not that important that we should risk our membership of the ANC, so no names please,” said ANC members in Bothaville.
“This branch has written letters to Shell House [the ANC’s national headquarters] and to Nelson Mandela on a number of issues which concern us. Mandela responded, but all he said was that we should refer our problems to Shell House,” said a member.
“We wrote to Shell House again, and the only response was that we were told to observe proper protocol and send our complaints to the proper channel, the regional leadership. They didn’t seem to understand that our problem was with the regional leadership, we couldn’t complain to them.”
“There will be a big crisis in the Free State if Terror is not allowed to stand as premier or chairman of the ANC. This province will never recover,,” another Bothaville member vowed.