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The ANC in Limpopo wants the speaker of the provincial legislature out.
Speaker Merriam Ramadwa has received SMSes from ANC leaders in the province requesting her resignation from a position that she has held for only a year.
City Press has learnt that in a meeting with ANC provincial secretary Knocks Seabi and deputy chairperson Jerry Ndou, Ramadwa was told that she was being recalled because she “argues a lot and undermines the provincial leadership”.
But the speaker has refused to go quietly – and is believed to have even approached ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe in a bid to save her job, but that has not helped.
Ramadwa’s allies said the speaker was being “purged because she refuses to take wrong instructions that are against policies and provisions of the legislature that she is running”.
“She has been seeking legal advice and made decisions on particular matters, thus going against instructions from above.
“There has been a lot of political interference from the ANC provincial head office and they have never been supportive of the speaker at all.
“I think they wanted her to slip up and became disappointed that she is not [slipping up],” a Ramadwa ally, who is a senior party member, said.
Some senior ANC members who are highly concerned about the current state of the party in the province have raised concerns about the re-emergence of factionalism in Limpopo.
The moves to oust the speaker have cast doubts on the factual accuracy of statements made by the provincial ANC office, including one last weekend where they reiterated that the party in Limpopo was united.
That was in response to a Sunday newspaper report that said ANC membership in Limpopo had dropped nearly 60% over the past three years.
According to the report, the re-emergence of factionalism in Limpopo was due to the apparent poor leadership of the ANC under provincial chairperson Premier Stanley Mathabatha.
Talk in the provincial capital, Polokwane, was that party bosses in the province wanted Ramadwa replaced by Paulina Boshielo, who was recently recalled from Cape Town, where she had been a member of Parliament, and is now a member of the Limpopo provincial legislature.
Ramadwa is yet to hand in her resignation, a month after she was reportedly requested to do so.
She is apparently defiant and has asked to be furnished with reasons for the request for her resignation.
“She wants the decision explained and also wants to know if she is being deployed elsewhere, but no one will say anything to her. They just want her out – that’s it,” a party member said.
In one of the SMSes, which City Press has seen, Seabi orders Ramadwa to hand in her resignation, adding that “failure to comply [with this directive] will leave the leadership with no alternative but to conclude that you are defiant”.
Ramadwa has already approached Luthuli House for assistance.
According to her allies, she approached Mantashe but was sent back to Seabi to discuss the matter further with the party’s leadership.
Mantashe refused to comment on the matter when contacted.
“I don’t deal with ANC matters in newspapers,” he said.
However, Seabi is seemingly determined to see Ramadwa go.
Shortly after the speaker approached Mantashe, the provincial secretary sent Ramadwa another SMS, again asking her to resign.
Ramadwa also refused to comment when contacted, saying “discussions between the ANC and its deployed cadres are privileged and governed by organisational protocol and discipline, which cannot be a matter of public consumption”.
She said Seabi was the only person who could comment “on the status of my deployment”.
Attempts to get in contact with Seabi were unsuccessful and his office later informed City Press that he was out of the country.
Deputy provincial secretary Makoma Makhurupetja, who responded on behalf of Seabi, said: “As the ANC we’re not in a position to comment on this.”
Ramadwa was seen as one of Mathabatha’s casualties when she was not reappointed as an MEC after the 2014 general elections.
Mathabatha had appointed her sports, arts and culture MEC when he was appointed as premier of Limpopo in July 2013.
It is understood that Ramadwa was not happy when she lost her job as an MEC and was redeployed to the provincial legislature as speaker.
City Press has also learnt of an additional reason for the ANC in Limpopo to force Ramadwa to resign – her name appeared on an ANC Women’s League list that is not supported by party leaders in the province. The provincial women’s league conference did not take place
