Bongani Majola
The desire to heal historic breaches in the Gauteng African National Congress is seen as a key motive for the elevation of Angie Motshekga wife of former Gauteng premier Mathole Motshekga to deputy leader of the provincial party.
At the Gauteng ANC conference last weekend she was elected provincial deputy chairperson in a move that raised eyebrows.
As expected, Gauteng Premier Mbhazima Shilowa was installed unopposed as chairperson.
Another rising provincial figure, David Makhura, was elected unopposed as secretary. Makhura was appointed to the provisional party leadership in Gauteng after the faction-ridden Gauteng executive committee was disbanded last year.
Motshekga’s election is widely seen as a strategic manoeuvre to placate the camp formerly associated with her husband.
Mathole Motshekga’s election as premier precipitated years of internal party wrangling that was exacerbated when he was forced out of the premiership by national ANC leaders in 1999.
Angie Motshekga, Gauteng MEC for Social Services and Population Development, beat MEC for Housing Paul Mashatile once a key opponent of her husband to the deputy chairperson’s post.
She this week hotly denied being a stalking-horse for her husband. “I met my husband in politics. I’m in the struggle in my own right and I’m my own person. I can run for and win the deputy chairpersonship with or without him, because I have a long history of activism in the ANC.”
She has in the past been seen as the power behind the throne when her husband was a political force.
Angie Motshekga shot to prominence as a teacher-activist in a United Democratic Front affiliate, the National Education Union of South Africa. After a stint in the civics she became deputy secretary of the ANC Women’s League in Gauteng.
It was the backing of the league that won her her latest position, she says.
“My candidacy was sponsored and supported by women delegates.”
Makhura has had a meteoric rise within the ANC. The former South African Students’ Congress president cut his political teeth in the trade union movement, where he serves as deputy secretary general for the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union. Last year he lost a neck-to-neck contest for the presidency of the ANC Youth League to Malusi Gigaba.
Delegates at the weekend conference clearly saw him as having played a pivotal role in ridding the Gauteng ANC of internal strife. After he delivered his secretarial report they rose to their feet and drowned him in tumultuous applause.
A surprise omission from the provincial leadership is MEC for Finance Jabu Moleketi. Earlier punted to succeed Shilowa as chairperson, he did not make it into the provincial executive.