Little more than a year into his presidency of the Pan Africanist Congress, Motsoko Pheko faces a coup at the party’s make-or-break conference to be held in Durban in December.
Disgruntlement with his leadership is at fever pitch among regions and party chiefs. Pheko has absented himself from national executive committee (NEC) meetings since the April elections, where the PAC received only 0,73% of the votes.
In his absence, support for him has diminished, even from his former stalwarts, and discussions about cooperation with the African National Congress have gained momentum. But party leaders this week dispelled fears that this could mean the PAC would be absorbed into the ruling party.
Pheko was PAC deputy president for nine years, ascending to the presidency last year at a congress in Soweto after a bitter battle with former secretary Thami ka Plaatjie and Limpopo provincial leader Maxwell Nemadzhivhanani.
PAC national chairperson Joe Mkhwanazi said he was aware that there could be an attempt to unseat Pheko but added that it had nothing to do with his absence from NEC meetings. “We know that some have been looking for loopholes to attack our leadership,” he said.
“Maybe some people wanted someone else to be president but they lost. Such people are now attacking the incumbent and, indirectly, those who elected that person. Such people have still not yet grasped democracy,” Mkhwanazi said.
The PAC has suspended the entire leadership of its youth wing, the Pan African Youth Congress, who were critical of the party’s leadership.
Senior party members are expected to table a motion of no confidence in Pheko at the PAC’s December conference, according to PAC leaders who preferred to remain anonymous.
His deputy, and the man punted as the new leader, Themba Godi, this week defended him, saying Pheko was in the United States meeting with the All African People’s Revolutionary Party when the last NEC took place at the weekend.
Godi told the Mail & Guardian that the December conference would be used to “face up to our ghosts”.
“There is a frank admission that internal dynamics have to be revisited. We will have to discuss how we place ourselves in the centre of unfolding political dynamics. The PAC is the only party with the potential to be the next government, more than any other party.”
Regarding fears that the PAC could be swallowed up by the ANC, Godi said his party had to move away from the periphery into the centre.
“We cannot avoid engagement with the powers-that-be. We plan to engage with all the roleplayers, including the social movements that articulate the same issues that we do. As Karl Marx said, nothing is static and everything is in a state of flux.
“The PAC must have a new vision and not rely on what it was 40 years ago. We have to accept that we made mistakes in the past and we must breathe new life into the party.”
An ANC spokesperson confirmed that the organisation had held talks with the PAC early this year about “areas of cooperation”.