By Nkutšoeu Motsau, (Chairperson of Azanla MVA)
A few weeks, about three weeks or so, before the Nasrec Conference of the ruling party in December last year, Kgalema Motlanthe announced that he would not go to that conference. Reason? He explained that according to the constitution of the ruling party, ninety percent of the delegates in that conference must be from the branches of the ruling party. Many of the branches which had been processed for the conference at that time were contaminated; they were compromised by the manipulations of the various factions. That means they were no longer carrying the mandate of their branches but carrying out the dictates of the various factions. In a word, that conference was going to be a farce.
Despite and in spite of the outcry from within the ruling party that the practice of buying votes must stop it continued in another form. Now it was reported in the newspapers that the branches from Mpumalanga and some parts of Limpopo were given pocket money for the conference. We also saw a gun-toting mob in the TV who were alleged to be intimidating the branches in Mpumalanga to tow a certain line. What with the court cases and judgements nullifying branches and PECs in KwaZulu, Northwest and the Free State. Even right at the conference, during registration, there were members who complained about fake branches. I do not want to mention the symphony of chairs in Port Elizabeth.
Cyril Ramaphosa soldiered on. He wanted to be the president of South Africa. He harped on the theme about the need to establish a judicial commission of enquiry into state capture, to pursue the corrupt elements and bring them to book and to recover the stolen monies. He was so enthusiastic he even said, during a radio interview, he believed that Jacob Zuma raped Khwezi! This brought the anger of Bathabile-Dlamini, the president of the Women’s League, to a boiling point. She lay about Cyril Ramaphosa telling him not to speak about other people; that he should confine himself to things concerning himself. She said they knew that he abused women and that they could call witnesses. She is the one who reminded the members of the previous NEC of the ruling party that they all had skeletons in their cupboards. Hell would break loose if those cupboards could be opened. Cyril Ramaphosa had to lower his tail and place it where it belonged: between his thighs.
It ended up being a race between Nkosazana and Cyril. Cyril Ramaphosa didn’t win by a large margin. It was very close. Even the results of the top six reflect a 50-50 margin. And so was the 80 member-strong NEC. There was no triumphant winner. It is a situation that calls for caution. Only one person spoke about unity before the conference, the Premier of Mpumalanga. It sounded cynical and out of place then. It has now become the buzz word. The unity of the ruling party is sacrosanct, they now say! This is determined by the balance of forces within the party.
Currently parliament is grappling with what constitutes a serious misconduct by a president. Is abuse of women by a president not the serious misconduct contemplated in section 89 of the constitution?
* The writer of this column, Nkutšoeu Motsau, was born in Top Location in the Vaal Triangle in 1953. He grew up in Sharpeville. He is a tetraplegic as a result of a car accident in July 2005 in Sharpeville and now resides in Cape Town, but still feels a deep rooted connection with the Vaal. Nkutšoeu is Chairperson of Azanla MVA.
