premiership row
Wally Mbhele
THE blazing row between the African National Congress and its alliance partners over the appointment of Gauteng Premier Tokyo Sexwale’s successor could sweep into the party’s crucial December conference.
Sexwale moved this week to douse the row, which has threatened to split communists and non-communists in the province.
But some ANC officials say the issue is urgent: they do not want to wait until the December conference to discuss the communists’ interference in decision-making. Instead they want to raise their objections at the next meeting of the national executive committee.
Such a move could reduce the alliance partners’ influence over voting for the ANC’s new national leaders at the December conference.
The row has been sparked by the procedure used last Sunday to choose Sexwale’s successor, in which officials of the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) had an equal voice in determining the nomination.
The executive committees of Gauteng’s ANC, SACP, Cosatu and South African National Civics Organisation (Sanco) chose the MEC for Health, Amos Ma-sondo, to succeed Sexwale. This was despite the fact that the other candidate, Gauteng ANC deputy chairman Mathole Motshekga, had more support from ANC branches. The alliance decision angered Motshekga and the ANC branches which voted for him.
An ANC task team responsible for co- ordinating nominations had not formulated a mechanism to deal with a lack of consensus at the meeting, and both candidates were determined not to withdraw from the race.
But, instead of recommending both names to the forthcoming ANC provincial general council meeting – the highest decision- making body of the ANC at provincial level – the alliance decided to recommend only Masondo.
The decision threatened to split the ANC’s alliance down the middle, until Sexwale swiftly intervened by announcing that the provincial general council will have the final say.
In ANC structures, debate was already raging about the role of the SACP and Cosatu in an ANC election.
Said one provincial executive member: “The resolutions were supposed to be taken to the alliance only to inform them, not to give them the right to chop out other names. The majority of the branches are asking how the party and Cosatu were allowed to determine who should occupy ANC leadership positions.
“A process was launched that pretended to be democratic and transparent, but at the end of it was turned around and brought in other criteria for nomination which was not agreed upon earlier. They reneged from the agreement that branches would be responsible for the process, and chose the number two candidate instead of the one we voted for.”
Another provincial executive committee member said Sunday’s process was not only about electing the premier, but also about determining who to elect as the next provincial chairperson.
“It has never happened before that an ANC leader could be appointed in an alliance meeting,” he argued.
A source in the party’s national executive committee (NEC) told the Mail & Guardian that the ANC had recently experienced the same problem when the SACP was found circulating a list of names to be nominated at the ANC December conference.
When the SACP was questioned about the list, its general secretary, Charles Nqakula – who has been appointed to the ANC’s committee for the December conference to co-ordinate nominations for the top posts – wrote a letter to all party members. The letter is said to have cautioned SACP members against attempts to influence the ANC.
“Nqakula sent around the letter to dismiss any notion that the SACP could engage itself in electing ANC leaders,” said the NEC source. “The ANC does not elect their leaders, so they were not supposed to elect the ANC provincial leader. It is wrong even in terms of their own policy.
“The same situation was prevailing in Cosatu but its general secretary, Sam Shilowa, withdrew that list in the interests of independence.
Sanco reiterated its view this week when it said the decision about the Gauteng premiership should be solely the ANC’s reponsibility. Where there was no consensus, branches should be the final decision- makers.