African National Congress national chairperson and Minister of Defence Mosiuoa Lekota is rapidly emerging as a favourite for the deputy president’s position among disgruntled party groupings across the country.
The ANC is to elect national office-bearers for the next four years at its conference in December this year.
A key cause of the unhappiness, and the support for the Sotho-speaking Lekota, is the appointment of predominantly Nguni-speaking members to top government and party positions. An Mpumalanga ANC member complained: ”Dr JS Moroka [the president general of the ANC in the 1950s] was the last non-Nguni leader of the party.”
The appointment of the Xhosa- speaking Charles Nqakula to replace the late minister of safety and security Steve Tshwete – another Xhosa speaker ? has already caused ripples.
”On top of it, Nqakula’s vacant position [deputy minister of home affairs] was filled by another Xhosa – his wife, Nosiviwe. It’s terrible!” exclaimed another Mpumalanga member.
The Nguni grouping includes Zulus, Xhosas, Shangaans, Swazis and Ndebeles. Unhappiness over the government’s recruitment practices has spread to the Venda-, Shangaan- and Pedi-dominated Limpopo, the Sotho-dominated Free State and even the Zulu-dominated KwaZulu-Natal.
An ANC member in Limpopo said discussions about the imbalance in ethnic representation in the Cabinet and the party structures have been raging for a while.
”But they have never been raised formally within party structures,” he said. ”The last time I heard a senior ANC leader raise it was Peter Mokaba, who expressed some disgruntlement when the president announced his Cabinet after the 1999 elections.”
A senior ANC member from the Free State said that similar discussions were under way between different Sotho groupings.
Lekota’s comment this week that South Africa’s ”quiet diplomacy” on Zimbabwe has failed has encouraged this lobby, which sees it as a sign of the former Free State premier asserting himself.
Other senior and independently minded ANC members read Lekota’s comments on Zimbabwe as an attempt to win support with the upcoming party conference in mind. However, a Lekota supporter said: ”We need someone who can stand up to [President Thabo] Mbeki and holds independent views.”
The concessions by the government on HIV/Aids in the face of a public outcry have also encouraged anti-Mbeki elements in the party. ”It shows that the club that surrounds the presidency is vulnerable and can be challenged,” one senior member pointed out. The HIV/Aids controversy has also highlighted the need to make room for an independent thinker in the presidency.
A founder member of the United Democratic Front, Lekota is known to have stood his ground in the face of political heavyweights. A populist with good organisational skills, he has long been a favourite among party members who entered the ANC via the UDF.
Deputy President Jacob Zuma?s performance was described by some as ”lacklustre”. A senior ANC member in KwaZulu-Natal, Zuma’s home province, said: ”JZ is a great strategist – but he keeps his cards close to his chest. No one really knows what he is thinking. Lekota is very open.”
Working against him is the feeling in some party circles that as chairperson, Lekota made himself unpopular during the dissolution of the ANC’s provincial structures in Limpopo, the Free State and Mpumalanga last year.
A member of the disbanded structure in Limpopo disagreed. ”Lekota listens to everyone and accommodates their views. I have come to respect him since he took over as national chair.”
Not the leadership’s preferred choice for the national chair?s position at the conference in Mafikeng in 1997, Lekota came from nowhere to beat Tshwete to the position. Party members say there was talk that non-Nguni speakers voted overwhelmingly in his favour.
Lekota also has a strong following among trade unionists, communists and members of the South African National Civic Organisation.