ANC Secretary general, Fikile Mbalula at Nasrec in Johannesburg, 17 December 2022, on the third day of ANC 55th National Conference. Picture: Nigel Sibanda
There is a perceived notion that ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula and Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema are at loggerheads about who should hold the keys of ultimate political power.
As much as this may be true, we should understand their battle is not personal, but political. These two politicians are former ANC Youth League (ANCYL) presidents, with Malema being the successor to Mbalula.
As presidents, they both managed to capture the minds of the young lions and kept the ANC youth wing vibrant in the country.
Ever since the days of the ANCYL, they have maintained a relationship that has seen Malema advocating for Mbalula to be ANC secretary-general in a heated contest against Gwede Mantashe, who is now ANC chair and minister of mineral resources and energy.
Over the years, their personal relationship has grown to comradeship, despite their difference in political affiliation.
But now, with Mbalula being the engine of the ANC, Malema understands the ANC secretary-general is two heartbeats from securing himself the highest office in the land.
And this is a threat to Malema’s ambitions. Therefore, it is nowadays not surprising for the two politicians to initiate media briefings, hoping to remove attention from the other.
READ MORE: ANC55: Malema ‘finding it hard’ to bring down the ANC, claims Mbalula
Mbalula understands his job is to protect the ANC at all costs another on public platforms in a bid to rally voters to their respective political parties.
With Malema’s obsession with the collapse of the ANC being evident since 2012, one must not shy away from the fact that his battle with the ANC has nothing to do with ideology.
It has everything to do with how he was expelled from the party by a committee that was headed by the incumbent president of the ANC, Cyril Ramaphosa.
So this battle to unseat the ANC is Malema’s retaliation to the brutal way he was politically dealt with in the ANC.
The EFF can’t claim to be different from the ANC, because what the EFF says is its policy, is just a copy and paste from the ANCYL’s resolutions in 2011.
Hence the formation of the from the EFF, which is contesting power and solely wants to see the ANC done away with.
They both have a way of resonating well with the masses and that is the reason they might find each other lambasting one another on public platforms in a bid to rally voters to their respective political parties.
With Malema’s obsession with the collapse of the ANC being evident since 2012, one must not shy away from the fact that his battle with the ANC has nothing to do with ideology.
It has everything to do with how he was expelled from the party by a committee that was headed by the incumbent president of the ANC, Cyril Ramaphosa.
So this battle to unseat the ANC is Malema’s retaliation to the brutal way he was politically dealt with in the ANC. The EFF can’t claim to be different from the ANC, because what the EFF says is its policy, is just a copy and paste from the ANCYL’s resolutions in 2011.
Hence the formation of the is more in tune with his anger, than any different political point of view. The war that Mbalula and Malema seem to be fighting lacks the aspect of being personal.
For they can both find each other sharing a laugh over a cup of tea. All they do is to perform a political spectacle for South Africa to watch – and move the country’s politics to another level.
What everyone is considering a serious fight, is to them just a way to make the ground more fertile for next year’s general elections and beyond.
They are preoccupied with the ultimate price, despite their friendship. As for Justice and Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola,
Malema might have a personal grudge against him. Lamola was Malema’s deputy during the ANCYL days and failed to show loyalty towards him when he got expelled.
So Malema believes Lamola lacks a backbone. Not only that, but Malema might even have a bit of jealousy for Lamola. Because at this point, Malema believes he, too, would be a deserving Cabinet minister – or the deputy president of the country – if he was still a member of the ANC.
ALSO READ: Malema is confusing our people, says Mbalula
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