a group of aggrieved members of the governing ANC's National Executive Committee (NEC) have threatened to remove President Cyril Ramaphosa from office if his backers continue to engage in clandestine deals with the Democratic Alliance (DA) to impose a coalition on ANC structures.
According to Sunday World, a shadow team of former and current ministers who are pro-big business has been engineering a proposed ANC and DA marriage behind the scenes, undermining the official task team mandated to take forward negotiations with all parties for a government of national unity.
Last week, ministers Mondli Gungubele and Enoch Godongwana were accused of being part of this core, but they denied the allegations as baseless gossip. The underground work was so advanced that when Ramaphosa spoke to his ANC top 7 colleagues this week, he casually reported that he had spoken to DA leader John Steenhuisen, leaving them bemused at his level of optimism.
The NEC member who attended the special sitting on Thursday when the ANC top brass thrashed out coalition options said, "They believed they had this one under control but the NEC challenged them. Otherwise, we will remove Ramaphosa if his people engage in any side deals. He is not in charge, but for now, he is still safe."
The majority of the NEC pushed back against the DA coalition proposal, and ANC chairman Gwede Mantashe played a key role in the resistance by allowing speakers more than the usual three minutes to air their views. During the debates at around 9pm on Thursday, about 15 speakers were still waiting for their turn, and the meeting ended just before midnight.
Another NEC member said that Ramaphosa was weak and "did not get what he wanted," adding that Mantashe and ANC deputy president Paul Mashatile had the upper hand. The NEC member claimed that the final decision Ramaphosa communicated regarding the national unity government was incomplete because it did not reflect the NEC's overwhelming rejection of the DA.
"Most people agreed that we cannot work with the DA because we come from two extreme ends of the ideological spectrum. They're extreme right, and we are a centre-left organisation. But the president did not say so because we cannot go public and say that we cannot work with the DA; we have already spoken to them, but the majority rejects them totally," said an NEC leader.
The majority is urging us to collaborate with the EFF, IFP, PA, and Al Jamah, as they will provide us with sufficient numbers while we strive to secure the MK's support, allowing us to form a government that represents the majority. That thing that comrades Mondli, Enoch, and Nat (Nkenke) Kekana were cooking was rejected by the NEC, and they were very surprised. We collapsed them."
Among those who were vocal at the NEC meeting was former minister and aspirant ANC president Lindiwe Sisulu, who, according to sources, had the support of some in the ANC top seven, who also encouraged her to continue publicly voicing her dissatisfaction with the DA coalition.
"Some want her to desist from talking about coalitions outside of party structures, but some have encouraged her to continue. And she is not going to stop," according to those in Sisulu's camp.
There were conflicting accounts about whether Sisulu directly confronted Ramaphosa on Thursday and "accused him of selling out black people" if he allowed the coalition with the DA. When Sunday World reached out to her for comment, Sisulu said, through a close ally, that her words were, "We will be selling out black people if we do a coalition with the DA." She refused to comment further.
Sunday World reported that among the issues Sisulu had raised, both at the NEC and in the public domain, there were "people inside the ANC who, every time the truth is told about the DA, get more offended than DA leaders Helen Zille and John Steenhuisen."
Our moles also revealed that what dislodged the pro-DA grouping was that they were rejected by their usual allies in other contentious political matters that get discussed by the NEC.
Lulama Ngcukayitobi, the Eastern Cape ANC secretary, surprised many when he took to the stage after two speakers who had already pushed the DA agenda. "He told the meeting that when he left home, his son told him not to come back having supported the DA because next time the son would reject the ANC for MK
