Lack of support sees Sisulu’s political career hang in the balance

She may be from an ANC political dynasty, but for Lindiwe Sisulu, it never rains but it pours – and her political future now hangs in the balance.

With her dreams of being elected party president having fast evaporated, the tourism minister – daughter of ANC stalwarts Walter and Albertina Sisulu – sought to defeat President Cyril Ramaphosa at the ANC national elective conference at Nasrec.

Lindiwe Sisulu’s Rude Awakening

However, on Sunday, she experienced a rude awakening after accepting a nomination from the floor for the position of treasurer-general.

While all other nominees obtained the required 25% threshold, Sisulu became the only candidate who could not make the cut – a development described by leading political analyst Richard Calland as “a humiliation and the end of the road for her”.

He said: “Firstly, her dreams of becoming ANC president were all illusory because she did not have a bedrock of support on the ground from the ANC.

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“Secondly, what we saw on Sunday evening was a nail in the coffin – a humiliation.

“She chose to accept a nomination from the floor for the position of ANC treasurer-general, something which was very risky because securing a 25% threshold is not easy.

“The fact she emerged as the only nominee who could not secure the 25% threshold reflects so badly on her lack of support.”

After service spanning many years in the ANC and in Cabinet, Calland said, he could not see “much political future for Lindiwe” – a view shared by many other political experts.

Her presidential campaign was rocked by several blunders, including:

• An attack on the South African judiciary, when she called for the transformation of the constitution – claiming she was exercising her right to freely express herself on pressing matters affecting the nation.
• Identifying with radical economic transformation group and ANC comrades on the fringes of the party, who included expelled party member Carl Niehaus and former president Jacob Zuma.
• Hinting during a South African Broadcasting Corporation interview that she would turn down an offer to serve under Ramaphosa after the 2024 national polls.
• An inability to vote during a parliamentary debate on the Section 89 report because she was “locked outside the chambers while attending to a text message”.

Experts have predicted a bleak political future for Ramaphosa’s detractors, who also included ANC NEC members Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Sisulu and Dr Zweli Mkhize.

According to political experts Ongama Mtimka and Roland Henwood, known Ramaphosa detractors were unlikely to remain in parliament or occupy Cabinet positions after the watershed five-day elective conference.

Born to a revolutionary family with a history of fighting apartheid, Sisulu is the sister to the late veteran journalist, Zwelakhe, and politician Max Sisulu.

In 1975 and 1976, she was detained for her anti-apartheid activities.

In exile from 1977 to 1979, she joined the military wing of the ANC, uMkhonto we Sizwe, specialising in intelligence.

She is a graduate of Waterford Kamhlaba United World College of Southern Africa in Mbabane, Swaziland, later graduating in education, and she has a master’s in history.

Sisulu served on former president Nelson Mandela’s executive committee following the country’s first democratic polls in 1994.