Cyril must stand firm on Supra

This was the week of political party figures defying their leaders.

Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille was fighting tooth and nail in a court battle to have her dismissal from the Democratic Alliance (DA) and subsequent firing as mayor overturned.

And in the North West province, Premier Supra Mahumapelo was fighting President Cyril Ramaphosa and trying to keep his hands on the levers of power.

The courts will have the final say on De Lille, but the Mahumapelo affair has worrying implications for the ANC – and for Ramaphosa’s commitment to clean up the government. In that sense, what is happening in North West has greater ramifications nationally than the De Lille saga.

Mahumapelo has supposedly been placed on “special leave” prior to what has been assumed will be his resignation as premier.

Even that concession has taken weeks to wring from Mahumapelo – weeks during which violence and turmoil rocked his province.

But, as we report today, he clearly intends to remain “number one” in the province, whether he is premier or not. Mahumapelo has persuaded the ANC’s provincial executive committee (PEC) – whose members are his lapdogs – to remove from the provincial legislature people who are on the side of Ramaphosa.

With the PEC and the legislature in his pocket, Mahumapelo can continue to wield the sort of influence that has led to claims of provincial corruption that have brought North West to the brink of collapse.

His defiance of Ramaphosa may be viewed as the last kicks of the dying horse that is the Jacob Zuma faction within the ANC … but it may also herald a new era of violence and instability.

If Ramaphosa backs down or compromises here, he could find himself fighting the fires of rebellion elsewhere.

He needs to stand firm.