TSHWANE BATTLEGROUND FOR ANC
| How a contest within the party over the leadership of a vital metro sparked orgy of public violence
BEFORE the battle reached the streets, the fight over who would be the ANC’s mayoral candidate in Tshwane began in the party’s national executive committee last weekend.
Gauteng ANC chairman Paul Mashatile came to the NEC armed with a list of three senior party leaders who the provincial leaders considered “neutral” in the fight for the control of Tshwane between regional chairman and current mayor Kgosientso Ramokgopa and his deputy in the ANC, Mapiti Matsena. Mashatile tabled the names of former cabinet minister Thoko Didiza, former Tshwane mayor Gwen Ramokgopa and academic Professor David Mosoma.
The ANC is desperate to retain control of the capital as the party’s support in the metro had been dropping since 2011. ANC support plummeted in the general elections in 2014, with it achieving just over 49% of the votes in the provincial ballot, which suggests it would have failed to get an outright majority had those been municipal elections.
Losing the city would spell disaster for the party, which has already lost control of the legislative capital, Cape Town, to the DA. Hence its desperation to find someone who would unite the factional Tshwane ANC and appeal to the wider voting population.
Mashatile indicated to the NEC meeting that Didiza — the House chairwoman of the National Assembly — met those criteria. But his proposal was met with strong opposition from some NEC members, including ANC national chairwoman and National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete and ANC Youth League president Collen Maine.
Mbete was reluctant to release Didiza from the legislature, telling the meeting she relied on her to help maintain peace in the House, thanks to her ability to tame the EFF.
Maine is said to have argued for the selection of Matsena. The youth league opposed Ramokgopa, alleging he had failed to deliver on his promise to set up a municipal youth agency. Matsena’s name had topped the list that was sent to the provincial executive committee.
Ramokgopa’s name had been dropped after the regional executive committee, dominated by Matsena’s backers, refused a compromise that would have let Ramokgopa retain his post.
But Mashatile and his executive dismissed the Matsena list and drafted their own.
And so Didiza’s name, which Mashatile had been considering for six months, was presented to secretary-general Gwede Mantashe and his deputy, Jessie Duarte, at Luthuli House late last Friday, ahead of the special NEC meeting that decided on the mayoral candidates on Saturday.
“If people are so divided, you can’t take any of the sides . . . [We] then said let’s support Comrade Thoko Didiza as a person who can bring a unifying approach in that area,” Mashatile told the Sunday Times this week.
He said there was no way Ramokgopa, “our best mayor in Gauteng”, would be allowed to serve a second term despite his good performance, due to divisions in his regional executive committee.
Mbete declined to comment yesterday.
Last Sunday, a meeting was held between the provincial executive committee and the regional executive in Centurion to communicate the NEC decision. There, regional deputy secretary George Matjila — a Ramokgopa supporter — allegedly warned of the chaos that would follow the Didiza announcement. Minutes after Matjila’s speech, an ANC member was killed at the Tshwane Events Centre.
The violence soon spread to townships around the province and by Monday morning, rumours of Matjila’s involvement were circulating in ANC circles.
Mashatile confronted the regional kingmaker on Monday, and ordered him to help quell the violence to prove he was not involved. But Matjila denied any involvement. He told the Sunday Times he was the one putting out the fires.
The protesters said Didiza was an outsider who did not understand the challenges facing residents and did not speak the dominant languages in the area. But Didiza, who has lived in Tshwane for more than 20 years, dismissed the claims.
“Let me say that from 2013 the ANC has deployed me in Limpopo. In Limpopo you’ve got communities that speak Tshivenda, . . . Sepedi, communities that speak Setswana in Burgersfort . . . part of it as well as Shangaan,” she told the Sunday Times.
“I have been able to work in those rural communities, not just the urban. I have learnt the language here and there. Communities have been able to understand me and comrades sometimes interpreted where I was falling short in terms of understanding of the local languages. I found people very understanding,” she said.
If people are so divided, you can’t take any of the sides Mashatile ordered the kingmaker to quell the violence