Zuma allies planning to ‘embarrass’ Ramatlhodi, Ramaphosa at NEC meeting

All hell will reportedly break loose at the ANC NEC meeting at the St George’s Hotel in Irene, south of Pretoria, next week.

President Jacob Zuma’s allies are allegedly planning to target ANC leaders who have been publicly criticising the president and the ruling party.

A source reportedly told The Sowetan that Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa was on the firing line for his recent criticism of the corruption in the ruling party. Speaking at the SACP’s Chris Hani Memorial Lecture at the Babs Madlakane Hall in KwaNobuhle, Uitenhage, last month, Ramaphosa touched on the divisions within the ruling party, which he said were a result of Zuma’s Cabinet reshuffle.

“The manner and form of the Cabinet reshuffle a few weeks ago heightened tensions within the movement, causing some comrades to engage in bitter exchanges in public statements and on social media.

“Over many years, the unity of the democratic movement has been gradually eroded as the politics of patronage, factionalism, vote-buying and gatekeeping has become more widespread,” he said.

The deputy president has been campaigning to replace Zuma as ANC’s next leader.

ANC chief whip Jackson Mthembu will reportedly also get a few tongue-lashings for saying the ruling party will lose elections in 2019.

Former mining minister Ngoako Ramatlhodi on Tuesday made damning new allegations that, while he was the minister, the now reinstated Eskom CEO Brian Molefe and chairperson Ben Ngubane “effectively pressed him to blackmail resources giant Glencore”.

This was allegedly being done to favour the controversial Gupta family and its coal business. The family was trying to buy the Optimum coalmine from Glencore, and Eskom was putting the squeeze on Glencore at the time.

The mine had needed to be placed in business rescue after Molefe refused to renegotiate a bad deal for Glencore, and he insisted on penalising the company to the tune of more than R2 billion.

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The ANCYL, ANC Women’s League and Umkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans’ Association, who are all Zuma’s backers, are reportedly angered by the public criticism suggestiong that the president was the cause of all the problems in the ruling party.