axed
Wally Mbhele
The political future of Mpumalanga Premier Mathews Phosa, hanging on a knife-edge pending the outcome of an ANC investigation into political infighting in his province, was given a dramatic boost last weekend.
In what observers describe as a solid vote of confidence in Phosa’s leadership, all his principal political rivals in the province were ousted from the influential provincial working committee by members of the party’s provincial executive committee, who accused them of failing to perform their African National Congress duties “with honour and integrity”.
The move could prove to be a moment of triumph for the beleaguered Phosa. The provincial executive committee, which sent his opponents packing from the party’s influential policy-making body, is constituted by all seven provincial ANC structures as well as the party’s women and youth leagues.
It could also send a warning to ANC headquarters that its grassroots structures support Phosa’s leadership in the province.
Sources who attended the meeting told the Mail & Guardian that more than 30 provincial executive committee members at the meeting voted unanimously to dissolve the working committee as they held its members responsible for the infighting currently drowning politics in the province.
This boost to Phosa’s political future comes ahead of the much-awaited findings of the ANC commission set up by the party’s national executive committee and charged with investigating the Mpumalanga leadership crisis that almost plunged ANC structures in the province into a state of paralysis.
The establishment of the high-powered commission led to widely reported speculation within party circles that the infighting was going to cost Phosa his position as premier and ANC provincial chair – despite the fact that Phosa was unanimously nominated for re- election by all ANC regions in the province.
The commission was established in January after Phosa’s political opponents fed secret reports to ANC president Thabo Mbeki, denouncing the premier’s leadership style and accusing him of involvement in corruption.
Led by senior ANC official Nosiviwe Maphisa- Nqakula, the commission has completed its inquiry. It is understood a report has been handed to ANC secretary general Kgalema Motlanthe, who is expected to hand it to the party’s national working committee for discussion.
Sources say the report is not likely to reveal any shocking findings, but will instead recommend a political solution to the problems besetting the ANC in Mpumalanga.
At last week’s provincial executive committee meeting in Skukuza, the ANC’s Mpumalanga working committee was disbanded and reconstituted.
“The provincial executive felt that we cannot continue to allow the working committee to drag the name of the ANC into the mud. All the seven regions felt very strongly about cliques and groupings in the working committee who are involved in personality assassinations,” said an insider who attended the meeting.
“They were no longer functional, as [working committee] meetings have been turned into war councils and all their chambers into war zones. So the regions felt that the entire structure should be disbanded as it had become a disgrace to the organisation.
“Some felt that the working committee should continue while awaiting the outcome of the commission’s findings, but the regions refused, saying they won’t abdicate their constitutional duty, which allows the provincial executive committee to dissolve any subordinate structure that is not performing its duties.”
Some of those who have now been discharged from their working committee duties include officials Phosa fired from their positions as MECs for alleged involvement in corrupt activities in the Mpumalanga Parks Board. Some were accused of lining their pockets with thousands, if not millions, of taxpayers’ money, while others were dismissed for insubordination.
Among those who have been given the boot by the executive committee, which represents nearly 200 ANC branches in Mpumalanga, is Phosa’s principal accuser, James Nkambule, whose allegations flamed the ANC’s inquiry into the provincial leadership crisis.
According to ANC Mpumalanga representative Jackson Mthembu, Nkambule has also been suspended from participating in the provincial executive committee “as well as any other ANC activities” following his conviction by the courts on assaulting a minor.
The provincial secretary of the ANC Youth League, Nkambule is also under investigation by Judge Willem Heath’s special investigation unit for his alleged complicity with disgraced parks board chief Alan Gray in defrauding the conservation body.
Mthembu said the ANC’s disciplinary committee “will further process the matter where [Nkambule] will be given a hearing with immediate effect”.
Also discharged from his working committee duties is MEC for Sport Fish Mahlalela. Mahlalela was dismissed last year from Phosa’s cabinet as MEC for environmental affairs, but appointed to the sport portfolio after the ANC head office lifted his suspension pending the outcome of its investigations into the provincial leadership crisis. None of the regions nominated him for the working committee position.
The deputy ANC chair in the province, January Che Masilela, declined nomination but he automatically becomes a member of the newly elected working committee by virtue of his position as second-in-command in the provincial ANC hierarchy.
Another of Phosa’s foremost critics, Jacob Mabena, did not stand for election. Sources said Mabena suspected he was also in line to be relieved of his working committee membership.
The M&G earlier this year cited all four officials – Nkambule, Mahlalela, Masilela and Mabena – as among a group who secretly sought to influence Mbeki’s office to kick out Phosa from his provincial portfolios.
Mthembu said the executive committee’s decision has not encroached on the commission’s mandate as it is only looking into the conduct of individuals in the province.
“The executive has not found anybody to have been the cause of the problems in the province, but precisely because it had become non-functional, it was felt that it was going to cause the organisation to perform badly in the elections. Hence a decision was taken that it be reconstituted,” he said.