No faction with honourable intention in ANC’s life and death battle

Lindiwe Mazibuko’s column “We must not fall for the RET [radical economic transformation] faction’s dirty tricks against Ramaphosa” (June 19 2022) refers. Once more, the motive for the allegations levelled against President Cyril Ramaphosa appears to take centre stage. The jury will always be out on motive where political scandal and contestation is involved. Our duty, as citizens outside those contestations, is to seek the truth.

Ramaphosa has much to answer for about the foreign currency notes stashed in his furniture. No amount of fear over who his successor might be should deter us from seeking the truth. The president has chosen silence after attempting to respond and then realising that the response generated more questions than answers.

There has been a lack of leadership in the ANC for a long time. Over the past four years, Ramaphosa has been underwhelming, inept and indecisive; pretending to be consultative, he has wasted much time over critical decisions needed for a serious reform agenda.

Worse still, he has been patient with the factionalism in his own party because he is a product of it. The danger pointed out by Mazibuko on Ramaphosa’s “most proximate successors” was itself facilitated by Ramaphosa for his own selfinterest and gain. Deputy President David Mabuza did not emerge from a vacuum and Ramaphosa is no victim of a process that gave him Mabuza as second-in-command — they cut a deal together.

There is a circle of dishonest, thieving, lackadaisical ANC politicians who are some of Ramaphosa’s strongest backers. He does not denounce their support because it is politically profitable. There is nothing noble in how Ramaphosa explores his own political ambitions. We must ask why some of those close to Ramaphosa — Gwede Mantashe, Zizi Kodwa, Nomvula Mokonyane and others — haven’t been charged yet, given the evidence emerging from the Zondo commission.

Far from Mazibuko’s assertion that the December conference is “a matter of life or death” for one faction, this factional battle in the ANC is one of life or death for both sides. The outcome will be the death of the ANC. There is no faction with honourable intentions that will benefit the ANC and its stay in power. It is a race to the bottom, to capture the levers of state power to use it in bargaining for positions. Ramaphosa knows this and he profits from it. There is no accountability.

The Zuma years showed how the criminal justice system can be manipulated to shield politicians from prosecution. To say that this has stopped under Ramaphosa would be naive. Ramaphosa promised a new dawn and the sun still doesn’t shine.

Like many leaders in the ANC, he is mediocre, and where he appears to be doing something right, it often carries undertones of being a public relations exercise rather than a commitment to a more functioning state.

Mazibuko presents Arthur Fraser as former president Jacob Zuma’s liberator but does not make the connection to the fact that it is Ramaphosa’s government arguing in our courts (on appeal) that Fraser’s decision was correct. The president never contradicted Fraser or disagreed with his decision; it seems Ramaphosa was all too happy to see Zuma “liberated”. It eased the pressure he was facing from his party about Zuma’s incarceration. Fraser also helped Ramaphosa to avoid the headache of having to decide on a presidential pardon for Zuma. Ramaphosa dances with his foes when it profits him. He is not a victim.

Pundits, opposition parties, the media and ordinary South Africans must ask hard questions, press for answers and be unrelenting in pursuit of the truth about the Phala Phala scandal. Ramaphosa cannot be treated with kid gloves simply because we fear that Mabuza might become the next president. Given the power dynamics in the ANC, it is not even guaranteed that he would be Ramaphosa’s successor.

Mazibuko’s suggestion that those who are keeping Phala Phala alive in the national discourse are doing the bidding of the RET faction “baying for the blood of Ramaphosa” is disingenuous. She must choose her path and let those who seek the truth continue. I am not worried about who succeeds Ramaphosa, if it eventually comes out that the president has compromised himself to the point that he may need to step down.

South Africans have a far greater task of preparing for the 2024 elections, which will be a watershed moment — for the first time in the history of our democracy there is a chance that the ANC could lose power. Choosing factions of the ANC should be the least of our worries, if at all. SA will outlive the ANC, not the other way around.