Zuma axis dealt likely lethal blow

THE Ramaphosa vs Magashule sumo wrestling match has been grinding along for five months, with neither man willing to take the risks entailed in going for outright victory. To compound our ennui, the slo-mo, stomach-bumping antics of the ANC’s two top heavyweights has just gone into extra time.

Last weekend the normal twoday national executive committee (NEC) meeting went into two days of extra time. Not over how to best knot the fraying edges of a rapidly unravelling society, but on whether its secretary-general should obey party regulations and step down until criminal charges involving R234 million are decided.

After four days of angry exchanges, the NEC delivered the obvious ruling on Ace Magashule: any ANC office bearer facing criminal charges must step aside within 30 days, failing which they will be suspended.

What was new and a potential game-changer, though, was the NEC’s decision on former president Jacob Zuma’s guerrilla force within the ANC, the Radical Economic Transformation (RET) grouping:

“No ANC member should associate themselves with or be involved in the so-called ‘RET Forces’.

“Furthermore, the NEC will not allow any member of the ANC staff to use the resources and premises of the ANC to hold meetings of the RET or any other faction.”

The decision on the RET is far more important than sidelining Magashule. Magashule, after all, may simply be replaced by another RET mouthpiece, such as his deputy, Jessie Duarte.

But to prohibit ANC members from associating or assisting the RET faction is, if enforced, a potentially lethal blow to the ambitions of the Zuma axis to regain control of the ANC.

At a stroke, it delegitimises the RET. It’s no longer about the rote contestation over policy that exists in any political organisation. It’s now about no longer giving oxygen to what the NEC labels “RET forces”, with all the connotations of enemy malevolence that the phrase implies.

The NEC meeting has left Ramaphosa in a uniquely powerful position if he dares to act forcefully.