E Cape snubs national ANC lobbying
● ANC leaders in the Eastern Cape say they have rejected attempts by party bigwigs linked to President Cyril Ramaphosa to influence the outcome of next week’s provincial conference, where premier Oscar Mabuyane is expected to be challenged as party chair by public works MEC Babalo Madikizela.
Party insiders in the Eastern Cape told the Sunday Times that minister in the presidency Mondli Gungubele, finance minister Enoch Godongwana and the deputy minister in the presidency in charge of state security, Zizi Kodwa, wanted a negotiated outcome.
It is understood that the three tried to sway Madikizela to stand as deputy provincial chair instead of challenging Mabuyane.
This was an attempt by Ramaphosa’s backers to have a united Eastern Cape going to the party’s national conference, as there are fears that a contest between Madikizela and Mabuyane could cause divisions. Mabuyane is Ramaphosa’s most vocal backer in the province. Even though Madikizela is not opposed to Ramaphosa’s second-term bid, the president’s camp would prefer him to rally behind Mabuyane to bolster unity.
But Madikizela and some of his allies told the Sunday Times that they had rejected any intervention from the three.
An insider who is part of Madikizela’s campaign said a group of ANC leaders from the province, including Godongwana and Gungubele, which he referred to as “the Eastern Cape from Gauteng”, were not in touch with the realities of the province.
“In reality [they] are not finding expression in structures. Quite frankly time has gone now, the horses have bolted,” said the insider.
Madikizela himself made it clear that he and his collective did not accept attempts to tell the province how to vote.
“There were some who wanted to tell us how to run the politics of the province, whom we dismissed. There are those who tried to tell us how we must vote in the province, but I don’t think we have a crisis. We don’t want an intervention from abakhaya [the homeboys]. People, when they want to remain relevant in that space, they must not come and dictate to us.”
He said the ministers had been blunt in telling him how to vote next week. “We will never allow that. It does not matter which minister you are [or] whatever you can activate ... to deal with people, we will never be intimidated.”
Madikizela, who met Ramaphosa in Johannesburg last Sunday, said they had discussed his work as an MEC and the future of the party.
“We spoke generally about the ANC on what is happening year on year, the decline, especially the last two, three elections. It was more on the unity and the future of the ANC and so forth, not necessarily the contest of the province and the challenges facing the organisation,” said Madikizela
He said he supports Ramaphosa’s approach in the province.
“We appreciate the approach of the president of talking politics broadly, the importance of unity, programmes that we are running ... such programmes definitely can’t continue if there is chaos,” said Madikizela.
Kodwa denied that he had tried to intervene in Eastern Cape politics, but both Gungubele and Godongwana confirmed that they had held talks with different ANC leaders in the province. They did not disclose names.
“During December all of us were at home, were in the Eastern Cape,” Godongwana said. “We might have met a couple of them in different ways. It would be taking it to an extreme [to say we had said] that so-and-so must stand, that was not our approach. Our approach was more unity than anything else.”
Godongwana said he met Madikizela in Komani and would have met other leaders individually in different places.
Gungubele said he did not meet ANC leaders as a group but had always advocated unity in the province. He denied that he had suggested who should stand for which position in the province. “I have never called meetings, you meet comrades at funerals ... but I have never called a meeting to meet with them,” said Gungubele.