The restructuring of the ANC’s head office and consolidation of the new party leadership is slowly taking shape. This week the Mail & Guardian has established that former ANC Youth League president Fikile Mbalula is to be appointed head of campaigns and that former youth league spokesperson Zizi Kodwa may become general manager of ANC president Jacob Zuma’s office.
And activists who have been pariahs under President Thabo Mbeki are to be deployed to Parliament.
In Parliament the ANC is due to announce a replacement for former chief whip Ncumisa Kondlo, who died last month. It is thought that former health deputy minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, unceremoniously fired by Mbeki last year, is the leading candidate.
ANC deputy secretary general Thandi Modise said the ANC has four vacancies in Parliament and would make announcements soon on who will fill them. She said there were no obvious candidates but one of the seats is expected to be allocated to ANC deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe.
The ANC has recommended that Mbeki give Motlanthe a Cabinet post. Modise said the party was still discussing Motlanthe’s exact role in Cabinet with the president.
Party caucus spokesperson Khotso Khumalo said all the vacancies would be filled when Parliament reconvenes in the first week of May.
Other parliamentary sources said Madlala-Routledge will face competition for the job of chief whip from rising stars in Parliament such as national executive committee member Lumka Yengeni and the chairperson of the public works committee, Thandi Tobias.
Madlala-Routledge has been acting as ANC parliamentary caucus chair in the absence of Kondlo, who in the period leading up to her death was too ill to fulfil the role. Senior MPs believe her formal appointment to the job is imminent, but will probably not be announced until after the current parliamentary recess. ‘She’s chaired three or four meetings and done very well,†one caucus member told the M&G. ‘She’s firm and open, and encourages debate.â€
Two other MPs said the clear differences of opinion between the parliamentary ANC and the government might be muted after next year’s elections, when a Zuma-approved Cabinet is in place. Debate would be more open that it has been under Mbeki, and the caucus would play a crucial role in it.
The ANC wants Motlanthe to take over as deputy president but his future remains unclear. In February well-informed speculation in the parliamentary caucus was that he would be made an MP shortly after Mbeki’s state of the nation address, perhaps taking the seat left vacant by John Gomomo, and would then ascend to Cabinet.
But party insiders who have talked to Motlanthe say he may be reluctant to take the job in the face of intense hostility from Mbeki and the current Cabinet, and would not be interested in a sinecure.
One insider said Motlanthe’s hand will not be forced, as the ANC’s new national executive committee (NEC) will make deployments in more consultative fashion.
‘We will take into account the human factor,†said an NEC member. ‘What does this person contribute and what does he or she actually want?â€
The ANC has also confirmed that Mbalula has taken up the full-time post of head of campaigns. This position did not exist in the last NEC and was last occupied by the late Steve Tshwete years ago. Mbalula headed the campaign to install Zuma as party president in the bitter internal contest with Mbeki last year.
Modise said she could not comment on rumours that Zizi Kodwa may become head of Zuma’s office. Kodwa was ANC Youth League spokesperson until recently and is a vociferous Zuma supporter.