Lesufi loses tight grip on Gauteng as new ANC leadership structure is announced

The wings of Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi have been clipped as he now has to share power with several senior ANC members who will help him administrate the province.

On Wednesday, ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula announced that the province will now be run by a task team, with Lesufi as one of its convenors.

Lesufi is the elected chairperson of the ANC in Gauteng.

However, the ANC National Working Committee (NWC) boldly decided to reconfigure the province after its dismal performance in the 2024 elections.

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The new team

Lesufi will now share power alongside ANC veteran Amos Masondo, who is co-convenor, and Notombi Mekgwe, who will serve as deputy convenor.

Hope Papo will support the convenors as provincial coordinator and Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko as deputy coordinator. Tasneem Motara will be the provincial fundraiser.

These leaders will be supported by a working committee focusing on various governance issues. They will also take the province to the local government elections.

The changes are not ‘punitive’

Mbalula said these changes are meant to bring the ANC in Gauteng to its former glory.

“Gauteng holds immense historical and political significance; it was the centre of the struggle against apartheid and the host of the ANC’s headquarters, Luthuli House.

“It was in the province that key moments of resistance, including the 1976 uprising and the mass defiance campaigns of the 1980s, shaped the course of South Africa’s liberation,” he said.

Mbalula thanked ANC structures and members who welcomed the bitter changes in the province with an open mind.

“The decision to reconfigure the ANC in Gauteng was not taken as a punitive measure against the PEC for losing elections. Rather, it is a response to the need to make sure the ANC organisation’s effectiveness in the country’s most populous and economically significant province,” Mbalula said.

Mbalula said the party’s regional structures were extensively consulted before the new leadership structure was introduced in Gauteng.

Lesufi ‘excited’ about his new role?

Meanwhile, Lesufi told members of the media that he welcomes the decision made by the party’s mother body.

“They ANC will forever assign us tasks, in doing so I do not think that the ANC will not assign you a task if you are not capable of executing it so we have been given a new task and for me its refreshing, exciting and most importantly it over stretches our capabilities,” he said.

Surprisingly, Mbalula also complimented Lesufi’s leadership in Gauteng.

Some reports suggested a rift between the two leaders over succession in the ANC. Part of it is about Lesufi’s controversial views on the government of  national unity (GNU).

“The ANC leadership have shown a vote of confidence in Panyaza’s leadership in government, and that is why he is retained because anything other than that would have shown that we do not have confidence in his leadership in government or otherwise,” he said.

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