Fikile Mbalula. Picture: Bongiwe Mchunu Fikile Mbalula. Picture: Bongiwe Mchunu
Supporters of Sports Minister and ANC campaigns organiser Fikile Mbalula have claimed that the outcomes of the ruling party’s recent North West and Western Cape conferences have boosted his campaign to replace ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe.
A source close to Mbalula told Weekend Argus that provincial ANC secretaries in all the provinces bar the Eastern Cape – one of the ANC’s biggest - were behind Mbalula’s “pro-2012” campaign for the ANC’s elective conference in Mangaung in December next year.
Newly elected provincial secretaries, Kabelo Mataboge (North West) and Songezo Mjongile (Western Cape) are former ANC Youth League leaders and have previously expressed support for Mbalula.
The positioning of provincial secretaries favourable to him is said to be part of Mbalula’s strategy of ensuring delegates chosen to attend the national elective conference next year are behind him.
A next step would be to make sure Youth League president Julius Malema, one of Mbalula’s most outspoken allies, is re-elected at the league’s conference in June.
Malema could face a challenge by Gauteng league leader Lebogang Maile, supported by Malema’s deputy Andile Lungisa, Wandile Mkhize from KwaZulu-Natal and ousted Limpopo league leader Lehlogonolo Masoga. There are, however, doubts over whether Masoga is still a league member after he was suspended following the league’s chaotic Limpopo conference last year.
The league this week started nominating members in branches for the conference – a critical and contested process as each camp wants their supporters accredited as voting delegates.
Mbalula’s detractors said his support was not as widespread as he would like to believe. “He also faces a challenge in Limpopo and Gauteng, because those secretaries are not behind him,” an Eastern Cape ANC source said.
Limpopo ANC chairman and premier Cassel Mathale is a staunch Malema and Mbalula ally, but provincial secretary Joe Maswanganyi does not share this view. Gauteng ANC secretary David Makhura would not comment, while Eastern Cape secretary Oscar Mabuyane said he supported Mantashe.
ANC leaders in the Eastern Cape privately blame Mbalula’s supporters for recent disruptions at provincial headquarters. One leader said the trouble was caused by those who lost the contest for provincial leadership in 2009 against a slate topped by SACP treasurer and MEC Phumulo Masualle, who does not support Mbalula.
The Youth League in the province, however, does.
A former Youth League leader said a league regional executive council member from Amathole was among those arrested this week after the storming of the ANC’s provincial headquarters in King William’s Town, where ANC leaders and staff were assaulted.
“No one has been saying they are doing it for Mbalula, but we know they are,” he said.
Mpumalanga also saw violent protests this week, which Mantashe told SABC radio were due to unhappiness over list processes. Unhappiness with lists was also expressed in Gauteng.
Meanwhile, the debate about whether canvassing for leadership positions within the ANC should be allowed, or whether the party should continue using “traditional” methods of quiet canvassing has been re-ignited in the run-up to 2012.
Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe last weekend told delegates at the ANC’s North West conference that ANC leaders should be “elected by the members without ever canvassing their votes”. However, some ANC leaders disagree. - Sunday Argus