Protesters in support of South African preident Cyril Ramaphosa with MKMVA member, Carl Niehaus leaves Nasrec in Johannesburg, 4 December 2022, after attending meeting with NEC, ANC MPs on Phala Phala report. Picture: Nigel Sibanda
The knives have been out for President Cyril Ramaphosa after the Phala Phala report was made public – but the President may have to watch his back.
Some of the potential backstabbers may be those he may have considered as allies.
ANC treasurer-general Paul Mashatile and National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula have been suggested as suspect in the campaign because of the manner they handled the Phala Phala probe and report by the Section 89 Independent Panel.
Political analyst Dr Ntsikelelo Breakfast said Mashatile wouldn’t stand by Ramaphosa because he wanted the President’s position.
Similarly, Ramaphosa claimed Mapisa-Nqakula’s choice of judge Sandile Ngcobo, to chair the panel that investigated Ramaphosa, was questionable.
They said Ngcobo always sided with former President Jacob Zuma during his time in the constitutional court decisions.
The President’s supporters noted that Ramaphosa had two types of allies within his camp – those who genuinely support him and would fight for him to the bitter end and those pretending to be close to him but actually wanted to stab him in the back. Mashatile was seen as one of those who was two-faced.
Breakfast said: “Mashatile strikes me as a manoeuvrist and much as he supports Ramaphosa in public, he does not mean it.
“He seems ambitious and he has used the position of acting secretary-general to his advantage because he was nominated to the deputy President because of his SG work”, Breakfast added.
“We are talking here about a politician who will always manoeuvre for himself.”
The analyst said there was no doubt that Mashatile saw an opportunity when the Phala Phala saga broke out.
“We should not rule out the possibility that Mashatile could be nominated from the floor of the conference as President of the ANC,” Breakfast said.
The fact that Mashatile quickly called an ANC NEC so soon after the Section 89 panel report was tabled to Parliament raised eyebrows and some saw it as an attempt to put Ramaphosa on the spot and catch him off-guard.
Unfortunately that plot was seen by Ramaphosa supporters such as Gwede Mantashe who immediately called Mashatile to order for jumping the gun with the special NEC.
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Mantashe and others were believed to have argued that the NEC should be preceded by the ANC top six and the national working committee meeting as a procedure.
“Mantashe has an advantage that he had been secretary-general for two terms before and he knows the procedures. Mashatile is doing this because he wants power, this is a golden opportunity for him to rise to become the President,” Breakfast said.
Ramaphosa supporters believed there was a sinister motive behind the special NEC that was organised for last Friday and they succeeded in pushing for it to be postponed twice before it was finally held yesterday.
“Why did Paul take it straight to the NEC without the matter being discussed by officials or the NWC. That is suspicious, they wanted to catch Cyril off-guard and remove him,” one NEC member said.
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Mashatile was not the only one regarded as Ramaphosa’s “wolf in sheep’s clothing” ally. Mapisa-Nqakula was accused of appointing Ngcobo to chair the Section 89 Independent Panel knowing that the judge favoured Zuma in work in the Constitutional Court.
When all other Concourt judges supported the majority judgment against Zuma, Ngcobo often issued a lone dissenting opinion.
Ramaphosa backers asked why Mapisa-Nqakula chose Ngcobo when there were many other judges who could have done equally well and without fear or favour.
The Renew22, or Ramaphosa camp, also raised the fact that the speaker agreed to exclude University of Cape Town law professor and constitutional expert, Richard Calland from the panel after the DA objected to perceived bias because Calland’s media comment favoured the ANC.
Although the Speaker stressed she found no evidence of perceived bias against Calland, she excluded him anyway.
Mashatile was one of the initiators of the “premier league”, an informal grouping within the ANC that was aligned to the Zuma faction or the radical economic transformation camp.
The league comprised of pro-Zuma former premiers Ace Magashule from Free State, Supra Mahumapelo from North West, Sihle Zikalala from KwaZulu Natal and David Mabuza from Mpumalanga while Mashatile worked behind the scenes in the league.
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