South Africa: Who Will Wield Power in the New ANC - the Xhosa Nostra or the Alex Mafia?

5 November 2022
Scrolla (Johannesburg)
By Zukile Majova

It is a foregone conclusion to many in the ANC that President Cyril Ramaphosa will get a second term.

To get there and cross that bridge in the 16 to 20 December elective conference, Ramaphosa will be heavily indebted to the Eastern Cape and Gauteng.

These two provinces, along with KwaZulu-Natal, have long-established ambitions of taking over control of the ANC.

The problem for Ramaphosa is that once he gets his second term, he will immediately become a lame duck president with little or no influence into the future.

The KZN cabal appears to have left it too late to muster enough support for a slate that could unseat the Ankole, as the Ramaphosa faction is affectionately known.

So the real battle for the future will come from inside the Ankole kraal, where the EC lobby has proposed that Premier Oscar Mabuyane becomes Ramaphosa's deputy.

The provincial home of ANC legends - Oliver Tambo, Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki, Thabo Mbeki - has presented this as the main condition for its support for Ramaphosa.

The Xhosa Nostra ran the ANC for 40 years, from 1967, when Tambo became president, to 2007, when Thabo Mbeki was replaced by Jacob Zuma.

The slate now being sold by EC lobbyists appears to mirror another rise of the Xhosa Nostra in the ANC, with Gwede Mantashe returning as national chairperson and Mdumiseni Ntuli contesting the position of secretary with Fikile Mbalula.

Febe Potgieter-Gqubule from Humandsdorp in the EC has been nominated for the position of deputy secretary and Gwen Ramakgopa for treasurer-general.

Also from within the Ramaphosa faction lies a plot to resurrect the infamous Alex Mafia, which has held the balance of power in Gauteng for two decades.

The group is led by Paul Mashatile, currently the most powerful figure in the ANC top six, where he holds the positions of treasurer-general, secretary and deputy secretary.

Mashatile has been nominated for the position of deputy president, with Ramaphosa as his boss, while some factions are hoping to elect him as president.

Newly elected provincial chairperson and Premier of Gauteng Panyaza Lesufi is the main blue-eyed boy of the Alex Mafia and has been fast-tracked to the top to consolidate the influence of Gauteng in the ruling party.

It is the political protection that he has from this power bloc that made it possible this week for him to openly attack the ANC, its government and Police Minister Bheki Cele without consequence.

"Any government that can't protect its citizens does not deserve to be called a government.

"Any government that can't fight crime does not deserve to be called a government.

"Any police force that will allow lawlessness, that police force does not deserve to be called a police force."

Strong words indeed - but they speak more loudly about the politics within the ANC than about South Africa's broken crime fighters.

Read the original article on Scrolla.

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