In Mashatile, Malema has an accomplice

Paul Mashatile’s elevation to deputy president of South Africa is an ominous appointment in President Cyril Ramaphosa’s reshuffled Cabinet. It portends a future where the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and ANC co-govern the country.

Patriotic Alliance deputy president Kenny Kunene let the cat out of the bag in September when he thanked Mashatile for being instrumental in negotiating a deal which led to the removal of the Democratic Alliance City of Joburg council speaker.

Mashatile – along with Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi and others – is behind an ANCEFF led plan to take over Gauteng metros. Thus far they have succeeded in Johannesburg and Tshwane.

ALSO READ: Mashatile and Malema co-governing SA not as farfetched as you may think

Next in line is Ekurhuleni. When that topples, the intention is to remove the temporary, minority-party placeholder mayors. The ANC and EFF will share out mayorships. This will lay the groundwork for ANC-EFF co-governing at national level after the 2024 elections.

Ramaphosa does not like Mashatile, or what is happening in Gauteng metros. While Mashatile has shown willingness to co-govern with the EFF, Ramaphosa has reportedly “resisted any deals with the EFF”. Malema has made known his ambition to ru(i)n this country.

In Mashatile he has an accomplice. They will use every available means to bring down Ramaphosa before his second term as ANC president is due to end.

Mashatile sees himself as successor and Malema will expect to succeed him. For Malema, much venom unleashed against Ramaphosa is personal.

ALSO READ: Paul Mashatile appointed as deputy president

In 2012, Ramaphosa chaired the ANC’s national disciplinary committee of appeal, which upheld Malema’s suspension from the ANC for bringing the party into disrepute. That decision infuriated Malema who was ANC Youth League president at the time.

Founding the EFF in the following year, he has remained close to the party’s left wing. The EFF’s headquarters are named after Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.

While it would be sweet revenge for Malema to participate in Ramaphosa’s ousting, it is not a forgone conclusion. And there is no certainty that an ANC president will govern after next year’s elections. Enough people could vote for other parties.

ALSO READ: What you need to know about Paul Mashatile

Ramaphosa was not legally obliged to choose Mashatile as deputy president. He may have weighed the Chinese wisdom of Sun Tzu: “Keep your friends close; keep your enemies closer.”

Former US president Lyndon B Johnson put it crudely: “Better to have your enemies inside the tent pissing out, than outside the tent pissing in.”

This is not dissimilar to the theme of Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book, Team of Rivals, about “the political genius of Abraham Lincoln, his unlikely presidency and his Cabinet of former political foes”.

There are certainly enough foes and rivals in Ramaphosa’s shuffled Cabinet. Is he being strategically smart, along the lines of Sun Tzu et al, or is he merely a slow-moving coward?

Let us not wait for a Malema presidency to confirm that Ramaphosa failed to read the situation correctly. Far better to vote out the ANC at every opportunity.