ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa speaks at uj Soweto Campus in Johannesburg, 8 November 2021, to thank all South Africans who took part at the Local municipality government elections. Picture:Nigel Sibanda
The “unstoppable tsunami” of the radical economic transformation (RET) movement loyal to Jacob Zuma appears to have reached dead stop as President Cyril Ramaphosa’s silent strategy has strangled it from the top.
With all its high-level leaders on the sidelines, only low-key individuals and newcomers are keeping the once-powerful and noisy ANC faction’s spirit alive.
RET used to boast influential figures, such as Zuma and Ace Magashule, former president and ANC secretary-general respectively, and members of the now-moribund “premier league” as its second layer.
The premier league was made up of political luminaries such as Magashule, former North West premier Supra Mahumapelo, former KwaZulu-Natal premier Sihle Zikalala and David Mabuza, former boss and premier of Mpumalanga.
In their heyday, whatever these men wanted happened, but today, they are all in the political wilderness.
Political analyst Dr Ntsikelelo Breakfast said Ramaphosa’s strategy to “kill your enemy slowly” was behind the RET faction’s demise.
Breakfast located RET to the premier league but with original links to the British public relations firm, Bell Pottinger, which initiated an anti-white capital propaganda campaign on the ANC’s behalf.
“The RET issue is a false promise,” he said. The co-opting of RET members by Ramaphosa was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
He appointed key individuals like Deputy President Mabuza, Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe, Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula and Minister of Cooperation and Traditional Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma into his government.
The premier league died naturally after Mabuza and Paul Mashatile, its main protagonists, were cooped into the Ramaphosa NEC during Nasrec 2017.
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But most devastating blow was when its main champion, Zuma, was forced into early retirement and then his main ally, Magashule, was slapped with a step aside sanction by the ANC. It immediately lost direction amid criticism that its radical economic ideology never existed.
Critics identified its members as a “coalition of the wounded”, as the majority of them had issues with the law, including Zuma and Magashule, and others facing fraud charges, among others.
It all converged in reports of their participation in state capture by the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture, chaired by Chief Justice Raymond Zondo.
They were not alone, however, because the top echelon in the Ramaphosa camp was also implicated in fraudulent activities.
With its imminent death, RET cheerleaders came to the fore. The new layer of low-key members comprised ANC NEC member Tony Yengeni, former Ekurhuleni mayor Mzwandile Masina and former spokesperson of the disbanded uMkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans’ Association Carl Niehaus.
But they had neither power nor a support base, except on the fringes. Even the newest generation of RET members, such as the KZN ANC leadership led by Siboniso Duma, were not seen as core RET, but members by default.
The fact that the ANC’s KZN provincial executive committee rejected Zuma’s suggestion to choose Dlamini-Zuma for ANC presidential candidate said it all.
Their choice, former health minister Zweli Mkhize, was not a RET member before he joined the ANC presidential race or got fingered in the Digital Vibes saga concerning allegations of an irregular multimillion-and communications contract.
Lindiwe Sisulu, who tried to champion herself as a RET leader this year with her fiery anti-judiciary statements, was rejected by core RET members.
Breakfast saw Sisulu’s move as opportunistic, saying “she hoped to be the champion of the RET when Ace was put on step-aside”.
He noted that despite being portrayed as a champion of radical policies, none of Zuma’s actions nor speeches contained a word about his radical economic policies – which The Citizen verified.
The big gap between RET candidate Mkhize and Ramaphosa in the nominations showed the RET faction’s influence was gone.
“There is no more neck-andneck contestation against Ramaphosa by the RET candidate,” he said.
ALSO READ: RET forces could collaborate to let Mkhize challenge Ramaphosa’s presidency
– ericn@citizen.co.za
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