ANC factions ‘use Eskom to get to Ramaphosa through Gordhan’

After the resignation of Eskom board chairperson Jabu Mabuza, one can only guess who will be the next to fall as a result of the crisis at the power utility, which appears to have become the battleground for ANC factions.

The fights at Eskom and other state institutions threaten to unravel the governing party’s fragile unity, with political commentators concurring that ANC factional battles are migrating into state institutions.

According to analysts, the call for Pravin Gordhan to resign and the claims that President Cyril Ramaphosa’s experiments around Eskom were failing would heighten the tension between the two main ANC factions.

Political analyst Dr Ralph Mathekga said the ANC factional battles were becoming a stumbling block in electricity security.

“We need to understand that Eskom is being used for ANC factional battles,” Mathekga said.

Another analyst Dr Daniel Silke said ANC tensions were heightened by several factors including an attempt to oust Ramaphosa using Gordhan as the easy target.

“The continued load shedding gave Ramaphosa’s opponents a chance to get at Ramaphosa using Gordhan,” Silke said.

Mathekga said Gordhan was not standing on firm ground in his position as minister of public enterprises and Ramaphosa had to always look over his shoulders.

“The reality is that this could threaten Gordhan’s career and somehow even Ramaphosa’s presidency,” Mathekga said.

Silke said the unity hyped at the ANC conference at Nasrec in 2017 never progressed beyond the walls of Joburg’s Expo Centre.

“The divisions that were there before Nasrec had worsened now and the tensions have increased as we move towards prosecutions around the state capture,” he said.

Silke said besides the pending state capture prosecutions, the upcoming ANC national general council had contributed to the infightings as Ramaphosa’s opponents wanted to question his policy implementation and frustrate him towards the mid-term gathering.

This week several other analysts expressed confidence in Gordhan saying he had done a good job under the circumstances. They said he inherited the problems at all the state-owned enterprises and was being targeted because of his consistent anti-capture stance.

One analyst, Xolani Dube, said it was disingenuous for people to blame only Gordhan for allegedly failing to perform.

He said the majority of Cabinet ministers had dismally failed to perform, citing the collapse of municipalities under Local Government and Traditional Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, the rising unemployment under Minister of Employment and Labour Thulas Nxesi, poor revenue collection under Finance Minister Tito Mboweni and lack of economic growth under Ebrahim Patel, while land reform had failed to deliver since 1994.

– ericn@citizen.co.za

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