Leadership battles are emerging in the ruling party. Jaspreet Kindra reports
Former African National Congress Youth League leader James Nkambule, who is in the witness protection programme, told the Mail & Guardian this week that former Mpumalanga premier Matthews Phosa was aspiring to stand for the position of the party president next year.
Nkambule, who is being investigated for fraud, has been identified by Minister of Safety and Security Steve Tshwete as the source of information that has led to the ANC’s leadership identifying former secretary general Cyril Ramaphosa and former Gauteng premier Tokyo Sexwale as co-conspirators of a plot to overthrow President Thabo Mbeki.
Nkambule confirmed to the M&G that he had sent reports of accounts of meetings that Phosa held with Ramaphosa and Sexwale to the ANC head office.
He claimed that in these meetings the trio expressed concern about Mbeki’s presidency. He also claimed that in one of his reports to the party, he had referred to a disinformation campaign initiated by Phosa against Mbeki, which included an allegation that Mbeki was involved in the assassination of former South African Communist Party leader Chris Hani.
ANC secretary general Kgalema Motlanthe said the ANC had no information of any such reports. He said Nkambule had been removed from ANC structures following allegations of his involvement in embezzlement of state funds.
Nkambule claimed that Phosa was planning to ascend to the position of ANC president “on the back” of Deputy President Jacob Zuma.
Phosa (48) made himself available for election as deputy president of the ANC at the party’s last national congress in Mafikeng in 1997, but withdrew from the race in favour of Zuma (59). It was very clear at the congress that he did not have enough support to beat Zuma.
Phosa this week refused to react to allegations concerning his political ambitions. Asked if he would ever venture back to active politics, he said he has the right to return if he wishes to.
In a radio interview on Wednesday, he dismissed Tshwete’s allegations as “nonsensical” and said it undermined the intelligence of the people of the country.
Ramaphosa was not available for comment and Sexwale dismissed the claims as “utter rubbish”.
Addressing a press conference on Wednesday, ANC leaders Motlanthe, deputy secretary general Thenjiwe Mthintso and national chair Mosiuoa Lekota claimed that there had been “gradual build-up” through newspapers such as the M&G of a “deliberate marginalisation” of ANC leaders.
“Consistently, these commentators have sought to present these people the same ANC members named yesterday by the minister of safety and security as victims of an “autocratic” president whose leadership style is characterised by “Machiavellian intrigue”, an ANC statement read.
They however denied knowledge of any link between these newspaper reports and the allegations made by Tshwete. Mbeki claimed in a television interview this week that business figures were raising funds for candidates to challenge him and were influencing particular journalists.
Lekota said the ANC had not yet approached Tshwete to provide evidence for the allegations.
Tshwete’s announcement has sent waves of paranoia through the ANC’s structures.
Lobbying and campaigning for elections for the ANC’s provincial office bearers scheduled across South Africa for June and July has begun in earnest.
Rumours of alleged plots to oust Mbeki have surfaced as the ANC’s national working committee does its rounds in an assessment of the provincial structures before they go to the polls. Said a source: “Everyone is living in the fear that their phones are bugged by the intelligence authorities.”
Another said: “I couldn’t be bothered, they can listen in as much as they want.”
Some of the sources interviewed by the M&G this week made their way to telephone booths to be interviewed. They claimed the M&G’s phones are bugged as well in an attempt by Luthuli House to discover who might be plotting against the ANC’s leadership.
The ANC, meanwhile, is likely to dissolve its provincial executive committee in Mpumalanga as it cracks down on supposed threats to Mbeki. The move is planned amid allegations by one of the two factions in Mpumalanga that a grouping which supports Phosa has been gaining support in the province.
This week Jackson Mthembu, ANC representative in Mpumalanga and a former MEC for public works, resigned from the provincial working committee for “political reasons”. Mthembu is a close ally of Phosa’s.
At least two sources close to the national ANC leadership confirmed that the dissolution of the Mpumulanga provincial executive committee has been discussed for a while. According to one of the sources, the decision is expected to be announced by the end of this month.
This follows a “political tribunal” held in the province under the leadership of Tshwete last month, where submissions on the future of the ANC in the province were made by various party members.
The national leadership has disbanded three provincial structures so far, but only for factionalism. The Mpumalanga structure would be the first to be dissolved in what could be viewed an attempt to crack down on “disloyal” ANC members.
Popo Molefe, Premier of North West province and a likely candidate for the party’s provincial chairmanship, is also perceived as a threat to Mbeki.
There are people in Luthuli House who are trying to link him to a pamphlet said to have been in circulation in the North West that suggests a debate around “one term, one president”. Molefe has denied knowledge of or involvement with the pamphlet whose existence was publicised when the ANC national working committee visited the province last month.
A senior member of the tripartite alliance called Tshwete’s plot allegations “nothing but self-serving paranoia. It is setting a dangerous precedent that no one can have discussions surrounding the performance of the president. How can the leader of the party become more powerful than the party?”
Another senior ANC member claims that the paranoia originates from a group of “praise singers” that surround Mbeki, “which has led to this hysterical reaction”. These members fall into the group which believe that Tshwete’s announcement is an attempt to rally support around Mbeki at an emotional level: “But the million-dollar question is is he under any threat?”
However, another group in the ANC feels that Mbeki, being a politician, has the right to investigate any threats to his position.
The situation is having a far-reaching impact on the state of the party in the provinces as provincial structures gear up for the election of office bearers.
ANC alliance partner the Congress of South African Trade Unions has criticised Tshwete’s publicly announcing the names of the three ANC leaders.