Bheki Cele is reportedly ready to risk his NEC job to head the eThekwini region.
Bheki Cele, the former police commissioner and now deputy minister of agriculture, forestry and fisheries, wants to be kingmaker in the build-up to the ANC’s 2017 elective conference and is willing to take on secretary general Gwede Mantashe to make this happen, sources claim.
Cele, who serves on the ANC’s highest decision-making body outside of its conferences – the national executive committee (NEC) – is also ready to trade in his senior position to head eThekwini, the party’s strongest region. With 103 branches, the ANC in this KwaZulu-Natal stronghold is highly influential in the party’s succession battles.
Cele appears set to take on Mantashe at this weekend’s NEC meeting about the latter’s recent letter, stating that NEC members “do not qualify to stand for elections in any lower executive structure”. This also applies to provincial and regional executive committee members who want to contest leadership positions in lower structures, said Mantashe.
The party’s resolution on organisational renewal, taken in Mangaung in 2012, states that “the practice whereby ANC members are elected to serve simultaneously on more than one constitutional structure should not be allowed”. In addition, the ANC constitution requires any member elected to the NEC to resign from any lower executive structure.
A source said Cele is willing to resign from the NEC to contest the regional leadership. Cele is lobbying NEC members to question Mantashe’s “interpretation of the ANC’s Mangaung resolutions”, the source added.
Proxies
Another source said Cele will avoid confronting Mantashe himself but will instead get his proxies to challenge the secretary general.
Mantashe said his letter was merely a reminder of the ANC’s constitution. “I did not suck it from my thumb. I am saying to them: ‘It is your decision, your constitution. Please respect it,'” he told the Mail & Guardian this week.
If Cele takes control of the eThe-kwini region, he will also be in a position to influence the Durban municipality’s R34.1?billion annual budget. If he opts not to remain as a deputy minister, he could set his sights on becoming eThekwini mayor instead.
One of the M&G’s sources said Cele’s supporters will cite the case of a former Gauteng provincial leader, Boyce Maneli, who contested the chairmanship of the ANC’s West Rand region.
ANC Gauteng spokesperson Nkenke Kekana said, however, that Maneli’s case was not the same as Cele’s. “Comrade Maneli was not elected to any provincial position in the last conference. So a week later, he contested to be chair of the ANC in the West Rand as an ordinary ANC member,” he said.
Cele’s supporters also plan to raise the case of Mpumalanga leader Vusi Shongwe, a candidate for the chairmanship of the Gert Sibande region.
But ANC Mpumalanga provincial secretary Lucky Ndinisa said Shongwe was not alone in seeking a position in a lower structure after losing a provincial position.
“The point is that they were former leaders. They were not provincial leaders when they contested the regions,” he said.
Resistence in the NEC
An ANC NEC member said Cele and his supporters will meet with strong resistance in the NEC, and that their expected challenge is not “going to go anywhere”.
NEC members can raise any matter during comments after the president’s political overview, or can simply ask questions seeking clarity.
An NEC member said that, if “Bheki has got so much power, why doesn’t he use it as an ex officio member and attend the eThekwini regional executive committee meetings? Then he can influence them towards his preferred direction.”
KwaZulu-Natal ANC secretary Sihle Zikalala said the provincial leadership does not get involved in regional leadership issues and branches are free to nominate whoever they wish.
It is understood that, although nominations have closed, if Cele succeeds in overturning Mantashe’s order he will seek nomination from the eThekwini regional conference floor. He would then need to muster 25% of support from delegates to be included on the ballot.
Cele apparently also has an alternative plan, which has been given impetus by the social media campaign #BringbackBhekiCele.
He has rejected a settlement agreement proposed in late May by President Jacob Zuma for him to withdraw his court application challenging his dismissal as the country’s top cop in 2012.
A copy of the presidency’s proposed settlement agreement states: “The parties acknowledge that in the spirit of nation-building and a desire to work for the common good, the continued conduct of such litigation is neither in the interest of the applicant [Cele] nor in the broader interest of the country, mindful as the parties are of the need to meet the challenges facing our country.”
Cele is likely to proceed with the litigation if his political ambitions in eThekwini are thwarted.
His lawyer, Andile Khoza, said he was instructed last week to again place the case on the roll at the high court in Johannesburg.