Wally Mbhele
A wide rift has developed between the African National Congress’s candidate for Free State premier, Winkie Direko, and the province’s ANC provincial executive committee, which could lead to another political fiasco in the province.
Within a week of her name being placed at the top of the ANC’s provincial list, Direko stunned Free State politicians when she recommended that ANC president Thabo Mbeki change the list. More than half the candidates who initially appeared on the provincial list have since been removed or placed on the national list.
The committee’s ability to function has been severely damaged by this decision.
Direko has now been marginalised by a significant section of the provincial leadership who accuse her of pursuing a “hidden agenda” and failing to bring about unity among the different factions in the Free State ANC.
Already there are ominous signs there could be a replay of the 1997 Free State drama – when former premier Patrick “Terror” Lekota and the entire provincial executive committee were axed or redeployed. But this time it is Lekota who is suspected of engineering the removal of politicians.
ANC representative Thabo Masebe dismissed allegations against Lekota and said he had nothign to do with the outcome of the Free State list. He said: “Even if Lekota chaired the national appeals committee, which was responsible for the final outcome of parliamentary candidates, he had nothing to do with Free State nominees.”
Unlike the situation in Gauteng and Mpumalanga, where the ANC visited its provincial structures to explain its decisions to change the lists, the Free State ANC was left in the dark.
When Mbeki went to introduce Direko to provincial structures last week, he did not convene a meeting with the provincial executive committee to explain some of the ANC’s decisions about the province. “He simply snubbed us,” said a committee member this week.
Among those who have been axed from the list is former Lekota rival and ANC provincial chair Ace Magashule, who has been deployed to the National Assembly. Vax Mayekiso, chair of the ANC caucus in the Free State legislature and regarded as a Lekota rival, has also been axed.
Also chopped are two lawyers not involved in the previous infighting. They are Sugar Ramakarane, the personal assistant of outgoing premier Ivy Matsepe-Cassaburri, and provincial director general Makhosini Msibi.
Another person ousted at Direko’s recommendation is the current chair of the portfolio committee on safety and security, Neo Masithela.
Direko has recommended that the previous speaker of the provincial parliament, Joe Mafrika, and former MEC for transport Sekhupi Malebo, be brought back to the province.
And now the Free State ANC is split again. “All the people who have been brought in and whose names have been given prominent positions on the list are people who have an identity in terms of provincial alignment. They all identify with Lekota,” said a fuming politician who has been removed from the list.
This politician claimed that the changes were effected at the ANC’s headquarters in meetings chaired by Lekota. “While it could be part of his political responsibility to chair meetings in the absence of Mbeki, in this case the ANC needed to be careful. Terror should not have been allowed to preside over this matter.
“The move has polarised the provincial structures. How was he allowed to … take the structures that were beginning to unite back to square one again? No rational explanation was given.”
Another ANC official said he also believed the newcomers on the list are from the Lekota bloc: “They have a specific identity within the political scenario in the province. While it was agreed that objections to the list would be made internally before final submissions could be made to the Independent Electoral Commission, it was also agreed that people who face objections to their names being on the list would be given a hearing. This was not done.”
He said no objections were made to some of the people being removed from the list. “In some cases the excuse given was that other people are presently incorrectly deployed. But who chooses whether you are correctly deployed or not? Today it is no longer like in the struggle days when you were sent to execute a mission somewhere without having a say. Yes, you might not have a final say, but you must be consulted. That process has been thrown out of the window.”
Other senior ANC members believe that it may not be necessary for their party to hold list conferences for members in the future if the final list does not reflect the desires of members.
A provincial executive committee member who has been dropped from the list said he speculated that Direko was not the author of the letter sent to Mbeki asking him to change the list. If this were true, he speculated, she was not suited for the position of premier.
He said it was tragic that she had managed to marginalise a grouping in the ANC before she embarked on an election campaign. “Here comes a new leader who has not even been inaugurated yet but hurries to make recommendations without consulting any provincial party structures and virtually dictates to the centre of the party.
“The other problem is that when you bring in people who were not on the list, you begin to create a culture of political masters. You make people owe allegiance to you as an individual who put them there, and not to the constituency which you are supposed to be accountable to. This is an old Pretoria type and style of politics.”
“For me,” said one of Lekota’s staunch supporters in the legislature, “the understanding is that while conferences were intended to be democratic processes for determining candidates for the legislature, the whole process had to be understood within the context of deployment.”
At the time of going to press, Direko could not be reached for comment.