RET will rev up for coup at meeting

‘Optics”, so the public relations and reputation management gurus will tell you, are crucially important for brands – and even more so for politicians. All politics is, at heart, about who wins the optics battle. What a politician looks like and what he or she says matter far more in the court of public opinion than their records in terms of service to their communities.

And the ANC, particularly, is an organisation whose members are susceptible to, and easily swayed by, impressions. That is why the radical economic transformation (RET) faction of the party, loyal to former president Jacob Zuma, came out on top last weekend as president Cyril Ramaphosa was publicly booed at the party’s KZN conference.

Its candidates triumphed in the provincial elections and proceeded to demand the scrapping of the party’s step-aside policy, which prevents many RET politicians from standing for election at the crucial end-of-year elective conference.

Ramaphosa looked uncomfortable and, after the debacle of his lack of clarity on the Phala Phala game farm burglary, gave the distinct impression of someone on the back foot.

And that was exactly what the RET gang wanted, knowing that party members have developed political flip-flopping into an art almost a good as that practised by Julius Malema. It was not surprising to see two provinces, hitherto supposedly strong backers of Ramaphosa, suddenly appearing to hedge their bets.

Limpopo provincial leaders added their voice to the KZN call to scrap the step-aside rule, while Mpumalanga said the policy must be reviewed.

Does this signal imminent defeat for Ramaphosa? Far from it – but it does muddy the already messy waters of ANC politics even more.

The RET people will be vocal at the current policy conference because they desperately need to set themselves up for the serious anti-Ramaphosa putsch at the elective conference in December.