Ramaphosa slicing and dicing Zuma’s carcass

● When eating an elephant, take one bite at a time, the saying goes.

It seems the ANC national executive committee has decided to get rid of “the elephant in the room”, but because President Jacob Zuma will not make their task easy, there will be a drawn-out and tedious ingestion.

There was consensus at the two-day NEC meeting, which ended late on Friday night, that Zuma was a drag on the ANC and should leave the presidency before he wreaks more damage.

But unlike the swift departure of Thabo Mbeki in 2008, the NEC decided that Zuma’s exit should be “managed” by the ANC’s top six officials.

The announcement of Zuma’s impending departure as head of state was masked in a statement by ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule yesterday.

He said the top six officials led by the ANC’s new leader, Cyril Ramaphosa, would continue their engagement with Zuma “to ensure effective co-ordination between the ANC and government”.

But the telling sentence, reflecting the discussions on Friday night, was this: “The NEC agreed that the ANC must act decisively and with determination to rebuild the bond of trust between our people and the movement, restore the dignity of our movement, and reclaim the moral legitimacy of our movement”.

None of that can happen with Zuma at the helm of the state.

To placate Zuma’s supporters, who remain vocal but less influential in the NEC, and to prevent a fightback on the removal of the president, the ANC decided against an immediate recall.

The outcome of the meeting has strengthened Ramaphosa’s hand, particularly to negotiate the date of Zuma’s departure.

One of Ramaphosa’s biggest dilemmas was the balance of forces in the top six and the NEC.

The wild card was the “unity” faction led by his deputy, David Mabuza, and treasurergeneral Paul Mashatile, and how they would continue to play the two main factions to advance their agenda.

But their game came to a screeching halt on Friday night.

Mabuza and Mashatile had been lobbying both Ramaphosa’s camp and the faction that backed Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma’s presidential bid to stack the 20-member national working committee with their allies.

They forged a deal with former presidential contender Zweli Mkhize, who had his sights on an NWC position. Mkhize apparently also wanted to be the ANC’s head of policy or to chair the economic transformation subcommittee.

Key leaders of the Dlamini-Zuma faction, including Nomvula Mokonyane and Bathabile Dlamini, who are still fuming with Mabuza for reneging on their deal at the Nasrec conference, discovered that they were being played again.

They reported the plot to some members of the Ramaphosa camp, which had also been quietly lobbied by Mabuza’s clique.

Both camps decided not to support the “unity” contenders for the NWC, resulting in the exclusion of Mkhize and Mashatile’s key backer, Nkenke Kekana.

Mabuza and Mashatile’s sway has thus been reduced and they will now have to fall in line behind Ramaphosa.

The dominance of Ramaphosa’s faction was evident in the composition of the NWC, where Zuma’s backers are outnumbered.

The NEC meeting also decided to suspend the provincial executive committees in KwaZulu-Natal and the Free State, and to establish interim structures. This dislodges the grip of the Zuma camp on these two provinces, and asserts the powers of the new national leadership under Ramaphosa.

In another signal of the new ANC leader stamping his authority, Ramaphosa is directing new appointments to the Eskom board to stabilise the battered energy utility.

Zuma’s long farewell has begun and while the ANC will maintain the pretence of a dignified departure, the indomitable elephant has been culled and is being served up.