Can Ace Magashule become the next president?

Yet another NEC gathering of the ANC went by uneventful for those awaiting the demise of the party’s secretary-general, Ace Magashule.

The highest decision-making organ of the party between national conferences had a virtual gathering this past weekend, and it was expected that a final decision regarding Magashule’s future would have been taken at this gathering.

According to a directive from the party’s integrity committee and a promise by President Cyril Ramaphosa made last year, based on the decisions made at its 2017 national conference, all party members implicated and standing trial in corruption cases should stand down from their positions.

Magashule is currently facing multiple corruption charges stemming from his tenure as premier of the Free State. But Magashule is sticking to his guns. He refuses to let go of his position and the NEC never laid out what should happen if a party official does not stand down voluntarily.

Since then, every NEC gathering grappled with the issue and came up with no solution at all. Most political experts say that this is a show of strength from the Radical Economic Transformation (RET) faction in the ANC. Magashule is seen as the leading figure of this faction.

If Ramaphosa is understood correctly, Magashule has another month to stand down. However, after this weekend’s indecisiveness, it is being said that Magashule might become the next president of the ANC and thus president of the country.

Political commentator Solly Moeng, however, differs sharply with this interpretation. Moeng says the structure of the ANC, which is to many a holy grail not to be touched, must be overthrown drastically for something like this to happen.

He explained his point of view to Izak du Plessis in the following video: