The dictatorial style of Mathews Phosa played a role in his being rejected by his own executive, reports Justin Arenstein
Mpumalanga Premier Mathews Phosa didn’t jump off the election bandwagon – he was pushed by his own ANC provincial executive committee.
The coup, with echoes of the unexpected power-shifts so common in central Africa, occurred during an executive committee meeting last Sunday, while Phosa was touring Europe.
The 42-member provincial executive committee unanimously retracted its support for Phosa’s nomination but decided to postpone announcing the retraction until it had discussed the move with Phosa on his return from Europe this weekend.
Only two of the provincial committee’s members, ANC provincial spokesman and public works MEC Jackson Mthembu and finance MEC Jacques Modipane, defended Phosa’s nomination during the heated debate.
Modipane served as chairman at the meeting but refused to comment on it to the Mail & Guardian this week.
Sources indicate, however, that one of Phosa’s strongest supporters to date, provincial ANC Youth League secretary general, James Nkambule, tabled the motion to withdraw Phosa’s nomination.
Announcing that the league believed that there were “very senior and powerful” ANC leaders who feared Phosa’s abilities and would therefore either block or frustrate any initiatives by Phosa, Nkambule told the meeting the provincial youth league was withdrawing its support for Phosa and was also refusing to nominate him for any other position.
The rest of the 42-member provincial committee stressed that Mpumalanga’s very vocal backing for Phosa, in the face of stated preference for Jacob Zuma as deputy president-elect by the ANC’s national leadership, was beginning to give local leaders a reputation as rebels.
“Mpumalanga is the only province that went against the national ANC trend and this, combined with growing dissatisfaction at what local leaders view as Phosa’s dictatorial leadership style, pushed the provincial committee to a point where it didn’t seem worthwhile to risk confrontation,” explained one provincial council member.
After one hour of debate, the provincial council decided to withdraw its backing for Phosa and will now instead nominate KwaZulu- Natal ANC leader Jacob Zuma for deputy president in line with national policy.
“Look, I can’t confirm or deny the move, but I can say that there was an agreement to have a relook at this whole nomination thing,” said Mthembu on Thursday.
“We agreed that we should look at national trends but have to wait until Phosa returns from Europe so that we can discuss it with him before making any announcements.”
Phosa was informed about the about-turn telephonically and reacted immediately by announcing in a series of speeches in the Netherlands this week that he had “limited political ambition”, that he had decided to stand down from the race in favour of maintaining party unity and consolidating support around more senior party leaders.
“My own role … will be not to seek higher office but to serve my organisational deployment to the very best of my ability,” he said, while delivering the keynote speech at a movie premiere.
“While there are people who would have preferred to wait until our December conference to clarify positions, I need to make it very clear that I will not be part of a divisive debate in this regard.”
The announcement caught ANC structures in Mpumalanga off-balance, with Mthembu and Phosa’s own office initially dismissing press coverage of the speeches as speculative reporting.
“We still don’t know whether Phosa actually said those things – this makes the matter more complicated, especially in light of the president’s own pronouncements on the issue,” Mthembu said.
“But one thing remains clear. You should not take the body that nominated and supported you by surprise. It is a simple and essential courtesy to let us know first.”
Stressing that he had no problem with Phosa’s decision to withdraw unilaterally, Mthembu said there were, however, concerns that provincial ANC structures had not been taken into confidence about the larger national strategies or reasons for narrowing the election process down.
“It’s very important that the normal internal ANC democratic processes don’t get interfered with. We understand that there may be well reasoned and necessary national strategies but it is important that provincial structures are not forced, or seen to be forced, to support these,” he added.
“People can call us rebels but we have every right, as elected leaders, to question positions or to suggest our own.”
Mthembu vehemently denied that the provincial council also debated Phosa’s leadership style or the growing use of “Mobutu” as a nickname for the premier.
“Your sources at least had a semblance of the previous debate but they’re totally off the mark on this one. We never discussed any such issue,” said Mthembu.
“The only thing which came even close to these allegations was debate about the growing irregularity of provincial committee meetings.”
A number of provincial committee members said on condition of anonymity, however, that Phosa’s failure to consult on important policy issues, his tendency to “shoot from the hip”, his use of advisers from the former regime and “uncontrolled drive” to appear untainted by the corruption in his province were undermining his support at branch and regional level.
Phosa is scheduled to arrive back in South Africa on Friday afternoon and will meet with provincial committee representatives on either Saturday or Sunday. – African Eye News Service