Ruling ‘a victory for Ramaphosa’
ANC SUPPORTERS CELEBRATE
THE supporters of Cyril Ramaphosa celebrated the Pietermaritzburg High Court’s decision yesterday, saying it spelt victory for the ANC presidential candidate.
The secretary of the ANC in the lower South Coast, Mzwandile Mkhwanazi, a Ramaphosa supporter, said the court decision would level the playing field between the two dominant factions.
“It means that people can now engage from an equal footing. Before this we had an element of bullying whereby if you did not conform to certain things, you would be threatened with disbandment.”
However, he said the decision also offered the ANC an opportunity for introspection.
“All of us have to swallow our pride and protect the interest of the ANC first.”
Mkhwanazi was one of the ANC leaders who gathered outside court to celebrate after a judgment that nullified their 2015 conference was handed down. “We will defend Senzo (Mchunu), we will defend Cyril (Ramaphosa),” the members of the victorious faction sang.
The small crowd made it clear they believed the blow to the ANC’s KwaZulu-Natal leadership was a psychological victory for their preferred presidential candidate, Ramaphosa.
Zakhele Ndlovu, a politics lecturer at UKZN, said the judgment was a plus for Ramaphosa and a “huge blow” to his rival, Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, as it revealed fissures within the party.
“This means that KZN will not go to the national conference in December as a united bloc. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma’s campaign is linked to Jacob Zuma, and it is KZN that was instrumental in Jacob Zuma winning the previous two conferences. So a divided KZN is not good for her campaign.”
The applicants who took the ANC to court challenging the legitimacy of the 2015 provincial conference have been linked to the ousted premier of KwaZulu-Natal, Senzo Mchunu, and by extension to Ramaphosa as the two are said to be on the same slate.
Under the Ramaphosa slate, Mchunu is also being touted as the next secretary-general of the ANC.
However, Ndlovu said there was a possibility that the matter could drag on in court until December as the province had revealed that it intended appealing against the decision.
“I have a feeling that it may go all the way up to the Constitutional Court, and could take a long time before it is finalised. If that happens you might even find a situation where there is chaos and KZN cannot even send a delegation to the national conference, which might force the ANC to even postpone the national conference,” he said.
ANC KZN spokesperson Mdumiseni Ntuli said the court case had been used as a proxy before the conference.
“The momentum you see now is because we are going to the national conference. Those who are tireless now will be tired then,” he said.
Ntuli said the court decision did not change the province’s stance.
“The province will remain with whatever view the majority of our branch delegates are going to hold, and that view will be the view that will be advanced and canvassed by the ANC in KZN.”
Ntuli said the process of convening branch general meetings (BGMs), a requirement before an ANC conference, would not be affected by the court outcome because the task of convening the meetings was a function of the regional executive committees.
Dlamini Zuma enjoys the support of the provincial executive committee, while Ramaphosa has the support of the branches and regions that backed former premier Senzo Mchunu.
Kwazi Mshengu, the chairperson of the ANC Youth League in the province, said Dlamini Zuma would not be harmed by the court decision.
THE recent media “revelations” about Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa’s several alleged extramarital affairs are the classic approach to creating doubt about a prominent person’s integrity.
They also call into question his claim to be a suitable moral or ethical alternative to President Jacob Zuma’s corrupt administration.
The latest accusations are meant to attack the very foundation of his campaign to lead both the ANC and the country. Ramaphosa admitted to having had an affair a decade ago.
This is not the first time that prominent ANC personalities have been placed in a situation similar to Ramaphosa’s.
In the past, accusations were made against Kgalema Motlanthe, a former ANC secretary-general and deputy president, and against Blade Nzimande, general secretary of the SACP and Minister of Higher Education.
The SACP is in a governing tripartite alliance with the ANC and labour federation Cosatu.
More specific reports of alleged infidelity have appeared against Police Minister Fikile Mbalula and Jeff Radebe, Minister in the Presidency. Marius Fransman, the former ANC’s Western Cape leader, has been suspended for five years for sexual misconduct.
It would be inappropriate to generalise about all of them.
And, with the available information, the Ramaphosa case appears to be an example of the tried-and-tested trick of spreading rumours about or exposing infidelity.
It is noteworthy that Ramaphosa’s defence mentions this directly, and that state institutions are allegedly being used (by the pro-Zuma group) to neutralise his election campaign. It represents an escalation of a dirty war against those who are working to restore the values, principles and integrity of the ANC and society.
Ramaphosa is considered a frontrunner among the contenders to replace Zuma – ahead of the president’s preferred successor, Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma.
The campaign to discredit Ramaphosa has gone through several stages: first, an attempt was made to compromise him by placing blame for the Marikana massacre on him.
Then he was discredited as a puppet of business who is being manipulated by “white monopoly capital”.
These were followed by the claim that he was being manipulated by a “white clique” that manages his election campaign and that he was, therefore, not genuinely “black”.
He was also accused of having beaten his ex-wife. But she refuted the allegation.
The latest line of attack seeks to advance the view that his moral outrage against Zuma’s corruption and unethical leadership is compromised by his own immoral extramarital relations.
Importantly, he admitted to having had an affair a decade ago.
But the campaign to discredit Ramaphosa appears not to be having the desired effect.
The general sentiment among ANC spokespersons and those of Cosatu is one of dismay. Ramaphosa’s family and acquaintances have also dismissed the latest accusations against him.
The fact that some refer to events about eight years ago, and the fact that they openly challenge Ramaphosa’s character, point to possible ulterior motives.
An important aspect of the current Ramaphosa case is that it is an indirect message to Zuma’s opponents. Zuma is making it clear that he still has sufficient access to intelligence agencies to expose the skeletons in their cupboards.
It will likely dampen the emerging rebellion in the ANC. An example of such rebellion was seen during the recent motion of no-confidence against him in Parliament.
It saw 35 ANC MPs defy orders to toe the party line in the motion brought by the opposition.
If it’s seen in the same light as the Hawks’ investigations into former finance minister Trevor Manuel and his deputy, Jabu Moleketi, and then former SA Revenue Service (Sars) commissioner Pravin Gordhan, about Sars intelligence and Treasury management, it sends a message to Ramaphosa’s supporters – to tread carefully in the future.
In view of the fact that the ANC leadership nomination process has commenced, and that intense contestation can be expected ahead of the party’s national elective conference in December, the possibility of serious incidents shouldn’t be excluded.
Political assassinations already under way in KwaZulu-Natal might increase.
Another important symptom of the motive behind the Ramaphosa case is the fact that Zuma has experienced a set of serious setbacks lately.
These include the following: the Guptas, the business family and his friends at the centre of state capture, are suffering a meltdown; there are new parliamentary investigations into state capture; the demise of his key supporters in various government agencies (such as Brian Molefe, Ben Ngubane, Hlaudi Motsoeneng, Berning Ntlemeza); the SABC is increasingly exhibiting independence; the ANC’s parliamentary caucus is rebelling against him; he has suffered several negative court judgments; and the UK public relations company Bell Pottinger’s woes have also discredited Zuma’s mantra of “white monopoly capital”.
The British public relations company employed by the Gupta business empire got embroiled in ANC internal politics.
It has since been sanctioned for its role in promoting the racially divisive “white monopoly capital” narrative sponsored by the Guptas, Zuma’s friends at the core of state capture allegations.
The months leading towards the ANC’s December conference will be a trying period for the South African mainstream media. They are a lucrative target for abuse by the two main ANC election campaigns.
Leaks, planted information, fake news and attempts to lure journalists to support either faction are all very likely possibilities. The Ramaphosa case has been the first major test for the media.
Clear editorial policies, uncompromised ethical practices and exceptional professionalism are what will see the media through. It cannot afford mistakes or miscalculations in the next four months. – The Conversation