ANC calls Magashule’s bluff
Ramaphosa goes for the jugular
ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa is going for the jugular in his fight with the party’s suspended secretary-general Ace Magashule, who is facing possible expulsion from the organisation.
Sunday World understands that the party has disabled Magashule’s ANC e-mail and deactivated his access card to Luthuli House, the party’s headquarters in Johannesburg.
This emerged as the former Free State premier was yesterday blocked from participating in a meeting of the party’s national executive committee (NEC), which ends tomorrow.
Ramaphosa backers now want the defiant Magashule to be charged with sowing disunity and bringing the party into disrepute, offences that carry a sanction of expulsion. This is for defying the party’s suspension and issuing a letter of suspension to Ramaphosa, which threw the organisation into turmoil this week.
Sunday World has established that the governing party told Magashule that he was not welcome at yesterday’s meeting as he was suspended following his refusal to step aside as per the decision of the NEC, the party’s highest decision-making body between conferences. The party backtracked on its decision to hold the meeting at the St George’s Hotel in Irene, outside Pretoria for fear of physical confrontation among leaders.
According to party insiders, the meeting got off to a tense start after ANC chairperson Gwede Mantashe highlighted that there were concerns about Magashule’s presence, as he was suspended.
Ramaphosa’s supporters, including former deputy finance minister Mondli Gungubele, went on the offensive, pushing for Magashule not to be part of the meeting. However, Magashule’s backers, including Tony Yengeni and Dakota Legoete, launched a spirited fight against the barring of the embattled leader, arguing he had appealed his suspension.
Magashule’s top ally, former state security minister Bongani Bongo, was also kicked out of the meeting.
“Dakota said the ANC was so divided that even the political report, you don’t know [if] it was delivered by a sitting president of the ANC or the suspended one,” a source in the meeting said.
Limpopo premier and ANC provincial chairperson Stan Mathabatha defended the president, saying “he is one of the best we have had in the ANC.”
This comes after a tumultuous week in which the ANC suspended Magashule on Monday after the meeting of its national working committee (NWC), while on Wednesday night, Magashule issued a suspension letter to Ramaphosa – a move which set a cat among the pigeons in the party. Ramaphosa and the party’s chairperson Gwede Mantashe have since come out to condemn Magashule, saying that his letter was null and void. The NEC was expected to respond to Magashule’s defiance.
On Friday, Magashule told SABC News that he was still the secretary-general of the organisation and that he was going nowhere.
“How can a suspended person suspend a person? He made the Free State a joke and now he wants to do the same with the ANC. Magashule has to be kicked out of the system,” another NEC member supporting Ramaphosa said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
He said Magashule and his supporters had miscalculated the step-aside matter.
“When they got 30 days, they thought they won. They thought the matter will be discussed at the NWC. The conference took a decision, and it is time to implement it. They thought we would keep talking and talking and dropped their guard,” he said.
Magashule’s faltering grip on power continued to weaken this week after the ANC Women’s League came out swinging against him after meetings of the leadership structures of the organisation. The league had been one of his vocal supporters within the ANC.
Magashule’s move to issue a suspension letter to Ramaphosa shocked many, including some in his inner circle. “He should have just approached the court to challenge his suspension. Since his letter of suspension to the president, forces are saying that he has lost the plot.
“There are even forces from abroad who were dismayed by his childish suspension of the president,” a source said.