With legal opinions drawn, will Ramaphosa succeed in getting Ace to step aside? It's unlikely.

First published in the Daily Maverick 168 weekly newspaper.

ANC Secretary-General Ace Magashule is unlikely to step aside at this weekend's first national executive meeting after being charged with corruption in November.

Instead, while the motion to make him do so will be tabled, a decision is likely to be postponed to the January NEC meeting, say various party sources who spoke to DM168 on condition of anonymity.

In August at a special anti-corruption meeting the party resolved that leaders charged with corruption should take a moral stance and "step aside" from their positions. The governing party was facing a country smarting from the evidence of billions of rand in Covid-19 related PPE corruption.

But Magashule has said he will not stand down unless the party's branches instruct him to. His defiance is laying the ground for a "fireworks" NEC meeting, according to a senior party leader. The meeting starts on Sunday evening and runs for two days.

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