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Supra Mahumapelo’s court battle is about returning to source of power, writes Kgabo Maditodi
‘The meeting was never a secret or about any plot. It was meant to inform Zuma that my efforts to resolve differences through engaging the current leadership had come to naught, leading to my desire to follow the litigation path,” Supra Mahumapelo has told City Press.
On November 9, the date his urgent court application against the ANC’s national executive committee (NEC) for having disbanded the North West provincial executive committee he chaired was dismissed, Mahumapelo spoke about his meeting with former president Jacob Zuma, ANC Women’s League secretary, Meokgo Matuba, ANC Youth League KwaZulu-Natal provincial secretary Thanduxolo Sabelo and ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule.
Mahumapelo said those at the meeting were disgruntled with the ANC leadership. Interestingly, Magashule was in attendance not by default, as he professed, but on purpose as Mahumapelo tells us.
One is inclined to believe Mahumapelo because he has nothing to lose in telling the truth. On the other hand, Magashule’s attendance bordered on ill-discipline of the highest form given his role in the party.
Ostensibly these ANC comrades are disgruntled because they “believe” members who backed Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma for presidency at last year’s Nasrec meeting are being ousted from party structures.
Of great concern is that as Mahumapelo consistently and tenaciously peddles this lie publicly, Dlamini-Zuma has not said a word. She appears unperturbed even though her name is used to divide the ANC.
She has not publicly distanced herself from these deliberate and misleading statements.
She did not say anything even when advocate Terry Motau asserted those named in the VBS “Great Bank Heist” report had counted on Dlamini-Zuma’s victory at the Nasrec conference to secure R1 billion by ransacking the Passenger Rail Agency of SA.
She appears unruffled. In fact, her attitude towards Zuma’s corrupt deeds and associates presupposes that her political positioning is still married to that of Zuma.
Supposing Mahumapelo is disgruntled, why is he reporting his difficulties in resolving the differences with the ANC leadership and Zuma?
Zuma holds no party position and has no official capacity to resolve party-related problems.
Yes, he still has an influence on the party. But at the time he vacated office, both in the state and the ANC, his conflict with senior party leaders was apparent.
Zuma is divisive and has no solutions to offer the state or the party for the problems he himself created.
By consulting/confiding in Zuma, Mahumapelo admitted to having no confidence in the current ANC leadership.
That is why he applied for urgent court interdicts to nullify the NEC’s decision to disband him and to prevent the provincial task team from taking charge of running the conference list in preparation for next year’s general elections. Fortunately he lost both cases.
Contrary to his affirmation of being purged, the circumstances that forced Mahumapelo to resign as North West premier offer a different narrative.
Community members were sick of his radical rhetoric on economic transformation.
Had he been successful, only he and his acquaintances would have profited financially, leaving ordinary people to struggle on in hardship.
Today the province is under administration because the government failed to provide services. Deep-rooted institutionalised corruption deprived citizens of basic services.
His court battle with the ANC is not about returning to government. It has to do with his quest to return to the primary source of power – that of the ANC provincial chairmanship.
Leading the ANC provincially is tantamount to running government.
Mahumapelo would determine government priorities and decide on deployees to give effect to such priorities.
His contemporaries in the province both aligned and opposed to him agree on one thing: He is not a lightweight politician.
With time and money on his hands, he is the most dangerous politician in the province.
His ability to mobilise at the grass roots level is his greatest political weapon. His withdrawal from the provincial task team was simply to free himself from the confines of party rules and protocols.
His strategy – cemented by his being at the Maharani Hotel meeting – is threefold. He is prepared to fight the ANC in the courts through litigation, in communities through his Tsetsepela Foundation, which does community and charity work, and in the party through structures such as the national general council.
Speaking at the KwaZulu-Natal ANC conference in July, Magashule said: “The awful tendency to take the ANC to court by disaffected groups must come to a final end and the self-centred ill-discipline that informs such behaviour must be punished and rooted out once and for all.”
He asked members to “toe the line” when the highest structure of the ANC has spoken.
The test now is for Magashule to charge his ally, Mahumapelo for ill-discipline.
Maditodi is a public servant
