Luthuli House ‘eyes Lynne Brown’ as Western Cape premier

The ANC announced the interim provincial executive committee (PEC) in the Western Cape yesterday.

Party stalwart and former MP Lerumo Kalako is the convenor and Stellenbosch councillor Ronalda Nalumango is the coordinator. But it is said that none of the 30 members in the interim body has been earmarked to lead the party when the new PEC is elected to replace the interim structure.

Instead, Luthuli House is said to be eyeing Lynne Brown, a former minister of public enterprises and former premier of the Western Cape, to become provincial leader at a later stage in an attempt to redeem the party after the Democratic Alliance (DA) defeated it in the May election.

Provincial heavyweights such as James Ngculu, Songezo Mjongile, Khaya Magaxa, Faez Jacobs and Ebrahim Rasool are in the interim structure.

Brown and former Hawks head Anwa Dramat were included in the new structure.

Brown was earmarked for the future leadership as she was not involved in the factions that have made the ANC dysfunctional in the Western Cape.

Some in the ANC believed that Brown was the only person capable of turning around the fortunes of the ANC in the province, including by luring coloured voters.

However, others doubted her ability to do that or to unite and rebuild the party because she lacks experience as a leader. Still others said that Brown was in part responsible for the current mess in state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and that counted against her.

She has also been implicated in state capture. The Commission of Inquiry into State Capture heard evidence that as minister of public enterprises under former president Jacob Zuma, Brown presided over the systematic capture of the SOEs by the Guptas. Eskom, South African Airways and Denel went bankrupt under her political leadership.

Others argued that under her premiership the DA gained the upper hand in the province and subsequently defeated the ANC in the 2009 election, whereafter Helen Zille replaced Brown as premier.

ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule announced the interim structure in Cape Town yesterday following the recent disbandment of the PEC, which was paralysed by political infighting among its leaders.

The ANC national executive committee disbanded the Western Cape PEC amid the infighting and after the party failed to wrest the province from the DA in the 2019 election.

Prior to the election, ANC headquarters had hoped to return Rasool as party leader by first making him head of elections. But Rasool became embroiled in the infighting within the PEC and some in the party turned against him.

Also, the fact that he failed to deliver the Western Cape to the ANC in May was believed to be another black mark.

But Brown’s possible elevation to the top may not help either. Instead it could exacerbate the intra-party conflict because the move would mean that heavyweights such as Rasool, Magaxa, Jacobs and ANC Western Cape member of the provincial legislature Cameron Dugmore would be overlooked.

The experienced Kalako is a politically sober ANC MP who fought tooth and nail against state capture in parliamentary oversight processes.

Under normal circumstances, he would have been the right candidate, but the ANC might strategically avoid fielding an African in a racially conscious province like the Western Cape.

– ericn@citizen.co.za

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