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Cyril Ramaphosa and Ace Magashule. (Photo: Felix Dlangamandla / Gallo Images / Netwerk24)
- The NEC is ready to debate the parliamentary vote on Busisiwe Mkhwebane.
- Tensions are boiling between Ace Magashule and Cyril Ramaphosa over various differences of opinion.
- Retired Defense Intelligence Chief Mojo Motau will lead a march to House Luthuli.
The simmering tensions in the ANC over the parliamentary vote on Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane will unfold at its national executive committee (NEC) meeting this weekend.
The Mkhwebane issue was not on the official agenda sent to the media this week, but the unhappiness of Secretary General Ace Magashule’s faction over the vote is understood to have dominated disputes between party leaders this week.
The meeting, which will be held virtually, began on Friday.
READ | ANC’s ‘step aside’ resolution in the spotlight at NEC meeting this weekend
On the formal agenda is a discussion about clarifying the regulations that govern the work of the party’s integrity commission, as well as a series of its findings that, among others, recommend that Magashule withdraw because he faces corruption charges.
News24 understands that tensions over Mkhwebane’s vote boiled over during a meeting of the top six on Tuesday at Zoom.
The animosity was palpable between Magashule and President Cyril Ramaphosa, who sit on opposite sides of the table on this matter.
Two sources, who are familiar with the discussions, said Ramaphosa criticized Magashule for undermining the top six. It is understood that this degenerated into a direct discussion between the two.
The president of the ANC, Gwede Mantashe, had to intervene and call both to order.
The meeting had to be postponed to the following day, where it was agreed to yield to the NEC as the final arbiter on Mkhwebane’s voting instruction.
“This will be the main power struggle,” said a third source.
The tension arose after Magashule publicly objected to the decision that the ANC caucus vote in favor of an investigation into Mkhwebane’s fitness for office.
He said publicly that the ANC’s top six were not a constitutional structure, a comment that apparently drew the ire of Ramaphosa.
The tone of Magashule supporters at the NEC was set in a letter from Umkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans Association, Sizwe Military Veterans Association leader Kebby Maphatsoe, to Magashule, made public by spokesman Carl Niehaus in his line of Twitter time, which requested that the NEC discuss it.
Maphatsoe said its structure was “deeply disappointed with the decision” that led the ANC committee in Parliament to vote in favor of instituting an investigation into Mkhwebane’s fitness for office, following the recommendation of an independent panel to that effect. .
The original motion was proposed by the Democratic Alliance.
Maphatsoe believes that the ANC deputies who vote with the district attorney go against the ANC constitution.
He said “it was a terrible failure to understand and act in defense of the ANC’s policies, objectives and program. It also fails (sic) the test that it is the duty of every ANC member to fight racism.”
He called on the national office holders, who decided on the ANC’s position on the matter, to be reprimanded as their decision caused “discord” within the ANC.
READ | Magashule Allies Warn ANC NEC ‘Secretary General Will Not Fall Alone’
Mantashe was primarily responsible for putting the caucus in order last week, hours before the vote, with the support of General Treasurer Paul Mashatile.
Ramaphosa and his deputy, David Mabuza, were silent during the virtual meeting, but Magashule and his deputy, Jessie Duarte, were absent.
Magashule repeatedly said that the ANC could not “vote with the enemy” and that there would be no consequences for MPs who boycotted the vote.
Other issues that have caused friction ahead of the meeting include an apparently Niehaus-led formation called the RET national operations center, which refers to Magashule supporters and former President Jacob Zuma, who say they support a “radical economic transformation.”
Niehaus’s detractors have accused him of plotting a new party at Magashule’s office, where he works.
Meanwhile, retired defense intelligence chief Mojo Motau will lead a march to House Luthuli to demand that a document compiled by a group of his supporters, which maintains that the enemy, neoliberalism, was within the ANC, be discussed. in the NEC.
Motau, who claims to be a former commander of Umkhonto we Sizwe, has invited Zuma supporters to join the march.
Last year, the South African National Defense Force reacted sharply when they suspected that Motau was encouraging members of the defense force to meet and discuss issues related to Ramaphosa’s leadership.
Fears were expressed that they might be plotting a coup.
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