Mahumapelo issue is haunting the ANC
Supra Mahumapelo is using the ANC’s own resolutions against it in his desperate quest to cling to power. The events of the past few days have been downright bizarre, with Mahumapelo resigning and then not, instead taking a “leave of absence”.
His statement to the provincial legislature on the “essence of the absence of presence”, which was supposedly meant to be a resignation, confounded observers and pointed to the reason the likes of Mahumapelo should be kept as far from power as possible.
The ANC nationally went about axing him the wrong way, due in part to the pressure of the protests raging in the province over the past three weeks. It always required a strategic and crafty solution — removing the head and not the body propping him up was always going to backfire. Perhaps the same could be said of the party as a whole under Jacob Zuma, but that is a debate for another time. Simply removing Mahumapelo as premier — he is also the ANC provincial chairman — does not entirely politically decapitate him. A better way of going about it could have been to dissolve the North West ANC provincial executive first, before tackling Mahumapelo.
The appointment and removal of premiers has long been a contentious issue in the ANC. In 1998 the ANC’s national executive committee (NEC) centralised power in the presidency to select the party’s premier candidates. According to an ANC statement at the time, the NEC decided that premiers, like national ministers, would be appointed by the president, then Thabo Mbeki. Mbeki’s centralisation of this power and role caused great unhappiness in the party and was among the reasons he was ousted.
In the euphoria of the early Zuma years, a key change to this decision, ironically, is what helped entrench his power — a resolution at Polokwane forced the incumbent president to ensure that he not only controlled individuals he would appoint to key posts, but entire ANC provincial structures.
This was because the Polokwane conference resolved to return power to the structures of the party, saying the ANC (not the president) remained the “key strategic centre of power”. This meant the “structures and collectives of the movement must make the decisions on the direction of our country”.
The conference instructed the NEC to “strengthen collective decision making on deployment” to senior positions of authority. So it was that this resolution, which is now empowering Mahumapelo, came into being. The conference decided that the provincial executive committees should recommend a pool of three names of candidates to be considered for the position of premier, with the final decision left to the NEC. That is why any agreement between Mahumapelo and the ANC’s national officials that he will step down can so easily be reversed by the provincial structure that played the key role in his selection in the first place.
The ANC provincial executive has instructed Mahumapelo to take leave of absence and appoint an acting premier. But this act may be illegal, according to analysts, because premiers are appointed by the provincial legislatures, so no single political party can dismiss them.
The ANC should have either gone the long route of dissolving the provincial executive committee and replacing it with a national task team, or the shorter path of allowing a motion of no confidence in the premier in the legislature and replacing Mahumapelo through a vote.
The situation was similar in Zuma’s case. He too stubbornly refused to resign, until the last minute, and in the end the party’s parliamentary caucus and national officials held a media briefing to announce that the caucus had been instructed to bring a motion of no confidence against him. He resigned on the same night.
Mahumapelo is singing from the Zuma hymn sheet, with the same discordant background music.
It is worth noting that a motion of no confidence was brought against Mahumapelo in the provincial legislature by the EFF, but it was withdrawn after the courts turned down the party’s bid to compel a secret ballot. The EFF has since resuscitated its motion.
Given the latest developments, an instruction from the ANC nationally to the provincial caucus could therefore see Mahumapelo voted out. Since the premier is in effect daring the ANC to go this route, it should oblige.
The bizarre situation of Mahumapelo’s axing is yet another reminder that the ANC leadership elected at Nasrec is not fully in control of the party. It will take a lot more than an early return from an investment road show, as Ramaphosa was forced to do, to neutralise those clinging to power.
They are not only holding on to the spoils that come with that power but are desperately seeking to avoid being held to account for the wrongs committed on their watch.
IT ALWAYS REQUIRED A STRATEGIC AND CRAFTY SOLUTION — REMOVING THE HEAD AND NOT THE BODY PROPPING HIM UP WAS ALWAYS GOING TO BACKFIRE
Marrian is political editor.