Lesufi is walking on thin ice

If hubris offered the same protection as a suit of armour, then Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi would be perfectly safe politically, not perturbed about getting fired for nonperformance by his bosses in the ANC.

Sadly, arrogance doesn’t appear to be helping shelter Lesufi from the possibility that his provincial executive committee (PEC) may be disbanded by the ANC’s national working committee.

Late last night, his political future was in the balance… although, given the track record of spinelessness from ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa, it seems only an outside possibility that Lesufi will be fired.

However, the mere fact that his PEC – and the one from KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) – has been placed on the chopping block indicates an attempt to cut Lesufi down to size.

Ostensibly, the reason for the disbanding of the PEC in both provinces is because they delivered the worst results for the ANC in the May elections.

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Support was dramatically down in Gauteng, once considered an ANC heartland, and there was a similar situation in KZN, although in the latter case the ANC’s opponents – the IFP and the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party – were much more formidable foes in a province where the politics of ethnicity is still important.

Supporters of Lesufi are trying to paint him as a political martyr because of his opposition to the government of national unity and his refusal to work with the ANC’s new national partner, the DA.

There may be some truth in that, because the ANC national leadership itself is still distinctively uncomfortable with the alliance with people it has long considered enemies.

Another factor in favour of Lesufi remaining unscathed is that he could defect to MK and pursue his supposed pro-poor agenda there. But there are already a lot of bulls in that kraal…

At the very least, Lesufi must watch his step.

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