ANC North West chair accused of changing allies

ANC North West chair Nono Maloyi could be an opportunistic leader who, like the man he has chosen to follow, newly elected ANC deputy president Paul Mashatile, wants to benefit from both ANC factions, says a political analyst.

Maloyi has been accused of misleading the North West to change from its mandate to choose President Cyril Ramaphosa, to vote for former health minister Zweli Mkhize at the ANC national conference in Nasrec.

Changing allies

The conference turned political allies into enemies overnight, with last-minute disagreements on the leadership choices.

Professor André Duvenhage, from North-West University, said: “There is a close and strongly defined relationship between Maloyi and Mashatile. Mashatile is most likely to become the next ANC president if anything happens to Ramaphosa – we know that the Phala Phala scandal is not sorted out, the political environment is unstable and we don’t know how the losers are going to act.”

Duvenhage said Mashatile and Maloyi are “independents” within the ANC who wanted to benefit from both sides by appearing neutral because they want to be kingmakers.

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He said Maloyi vacillated between the two sides – portraying himself as a Ramaphosa supporter and on the other side, interacting with the radical economic transformation (RET) grouping.

Maloyi’s provincial executive committee (PEC), known as N12, because of the highway leading to Maloyi’s home region of Dr KK Kaunda – centred on Klerksdorp/Potchefstroom – was attacked by the province’s delegates.

Branch delegates from North West claimed Maloyi’s N12 faction went against the mandate of branches when it announced Mkhize as the province’s presidential choice instead of Ramaphosa.

This after the PEC tried to persuade the delegates to vote for Mkhize at the eleventh hour.

Misleading

A delegate, from ward 6 in Joubertina at Kenneth Kaunda, accused Maloyi and the PEC of misleading them.

“We are very angry about the pronouncement made by Maloyi that we should go for Mkhize for president. As branches we are very angry,” the delegate said.

“The branches of the ANC will not stand this nonsense and will never keep quiet. Maloyi is acting like he is the ANC and not a deployee of the party,” the delegate said.

“We don’t care about their trade-offs. We will never follow their nonsense. We are happy to be led by Ramaphosa. We need another PGC [provincial general council] to correct this nonsensical behaviour of the PEC officials.”

According to the delegate, the PEC were given the party line to vote for Ramaphosa, but they voted for Mkhize.

“We will always go with the collective and not individuals, even if they have money. We will never accept this,” he said.

A Ramaphosa-supporting PEC member, who opposed the N12 decision, lambasted fellow PEC members.

The response

“Comrades must never be confused. The PGC is a convention of branches, not a convention of a faction called N12. The N12 had engaged with the Mkhize team but they cannot resolve on behalf of ANC branches.

“We will still move in the same way [Ramaphosa way] that we had all agreed. In fact, why do I as PEC member not know that we needed somebody to come and engage us… let’s agree to disagree,” the PEC member said.

Duvenhage said the ANC was caught up in the struggle among three groupings – the RET that followed former president Jacob Zuma but had now moved to Mkhize and the Ramaphosa faction.

In between them, there was the third grouping comprising opportunists, or independents, led by Mashatile and to which Maloyi belonged. – ericn@citizen.co.za