RAMAPHOSA’S ‘GRAND PLAN’

Thandi Modise marches up ANC ranks

● New defence minister Thandi Modise was recalled from parliament to the national cabinet to position her for a higher post in President Cyril Ramaphosa’s administration during his second term.

Modise’s name is said to be high on the list of female leaders Ramaphosa’s faction is considering lobbying ANC structures to support for the post of deputy president when the ANC elects new leaders next year.

This comes amid pressure on the ANC to elect a female leader. Ramaphosa’s opponents are flirting with the idea of putting up a woman to oppose him next year. The Ramaphosa grouping wants to counter that move — and show that Ramaphosa is preparing a woman to succeed him.

Modise “qualifies for the job. She’ll make a good deputy president”, said an insider close to Ramaphosa.

This would not be the first time Ramaphosa has tried for a female deputy. In the run-up to the Nasrec conference in 2017, he publicly urged his supporters to vote for international relations minister Naledi Pandor for the deputy president position.

The ANC has chosen former defence minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula to replace Modise as speaker of the National Assembly.

An insider privy to the workings in the presidency said Mapisa-Nqakula was not removed because of the blunders that led to the security cluster being caught off guard by the riots in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng last month, as has been speculated.

“She was far from the riots. The only people who were closer were those two [police minister Bheki Cele and former state security minister Ayanda Dlodlo]. The decision had nothing to do with [Mapisa-Nqakula]. The problem was that she stayed in that position for too long and she became too comfortable.”

The DA plans to field a candidate to challenge MapisaNqakula, but the former minister is likely to be elected speaker as the EFF has said it will not field a candidate for the position.

Parliament will hold a full sit- ting for the first time since March last year, as the constitution pre- scribes that voting for the National Assembly speaker should take place via a secret ballot.

Parliament’s top administrators conceded in a meeting of the National Assembly programming committee that their ICT systems are not ready to allow all 400 MPs a virtual, simultaneous and secret vote.

The house has been using a hybrid system in which only a handful of MPs attend plenary sessions in the chamber while the rest connect virtually.

Discussing preparations for the speaker’s election on Thursday, senior MPs raised concerns about the “logistical nightmare” of getting their colleagues to Cape Town when only two airlines are operating.

They said it may be difficult to secure flights at such short notice. They are also concerned about being in the city when its Covid-19 numbers are on the rise.

ANC caucus spokesperson Nomfanelo Kota confirmed that the party has called a “three-line whip”, parliamentary jargon for compulsory attendance at a sitting and an instruction to vote in a particular way.

She said ANC MPs have been urged to make early arrangements to get to Cape Town.

In motivating for MapisaNqakula’s election, the ANC cited what it called her formidable experience and “solid track record” as a legislator and policymaker.

She chaired parliament’s joint standing committee on intelligence and was ANC chief whip for seven months between October 2001 and May 2002, when she was appointed home affairs deputy minister.

The DA said her nomination makes a mockery of parliament and the constitution.

DA chief whip Natasha Mazzone cited scandals the former minister was implicated in, including the alleged smuggling of her late son’s Burundian girlfriend to SA aboard an air force jet.

Mazzone would not divulge the DA nominee for the speaker’s chair, but insiders said it would be the respected chair of the party caucus, Dr Annelie Lotriet.