ANC NEC can only recall Ramaphosa after Integrity Committee report, says Kekana

ANC leader Nkenke Kekana has set the tone for the ANC national executive committee (NEC) meeting, taking place on Monday, by declaring his support for President Cyril Ramaphosa in the wake of the damning section 89 parliamentary report into the Phala Phala farm scandal.

In an opinion piece submitted to the Mail & Guardian, Kekana — a Paul Mashatile ally — said Ramaphosa had every right to take the independent panel’s report on legal review. The panel found that the president might have violated his oath of office

Ramaphosa faced a hostile NEC meeting, as the national assembly geared up to debate the report on Tuesday. 

“If the president had been criminally charged, the ANC’s step-aside rule would apply. To ask a candidate who won the overwhelming majority of [ANC presidency] nominations to step aside would be seen as an attempt to disqualify him through the back door. It is undemocratic and not in line with the ANC’s reform agenda,” Kekana said. 

“The onus sits with the president to apply his mind to whether his actions are in line with his stated logic on the reform agenda and what the social consequences of his actions will be for the ANC.”

Kekana said the party had “come too far to be set back by recommendations that can either be overturned through a legal review or must still be tested by untested parliamentary impeachment mechanisms”. 

His statements are a clear indication that the Mashatile camp has resolved to support Ramaphosa at the NEC meeting.  

The special NEC meeting was called to discuss the independent inquiry’s findings and the ANC’s response. 

The NEC — charged with the ANC’s day-to-day operations — sat on Sunday, with its members disagreeing on the action the party should take. 

Ramaphosa allies, including Fikile Mbalula, Nonceba Mhlauli and Ronald Lamola, poked holes in the report, calling it “flawed”,  while suggesting the party’s parliamentary caucus should be ordered to reject it at Tuesday’s National Assembly sitting. 

However, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Dakota Legoete, Bathabile Dlamini and Jeff Radede said that the ANC should not take the report lightly. Dlamini-Zuma is also alleged to have argued that Ramaphosa had brought the party into disrepute.  

Speculation over Ramaphosa’s resignation ran wild on Thursday as his allies frantically attempted to dissuade him from stepping down. 

Kekana said the party was two weeks away from electing new leadership and that ANC members and society had great expectations that the re-election of Ramaphosa would arrest the downward trend in the country and the governing party. 

“He was expected to be a champion of moral and ethical leadership and a fighter against corruption and malfeasance. There are significant strides he has made in this area. It was going fairly well, given the limitations of the socio-economic climate the country is facing, and the need to rebuild the capacity of state institutions. But, unfortunately, his work in this area has been overshadowed by the Phala Phala matter.

“Is there a legal and criminal case to answer? I do not know; I am not a prosecutor. [A]fter all, it is his money — whether he puts it in a safe or a mattress is a moral issue. [But] we can’t discount the deep disappointment at the president’s conduct in allowing this private matter to undermine his legacy.”

Kekana added that the eventual consequences of Ramaphosa’s decision would be felt in the national elections in 2024. 

“I do not believe the NEC is competent to recall the president this close to the conference, based on the section 89 report, which is yet to run its course. There is a precedent in this regard — the NGC [national general council] of 2005 overruled the NEC at that time to suspend an elected deputy president. It is risky so close to conference to take such a decision, only to be overturned by branches at the conference.”

He said the NEC could only make a decision about the president stepping down after receiving a report from the Integrity Commission. 

“If the president were to resign, it would entirely be based on his conscience, given the damage to his reputation by the Phala Phala saga.”  

Kekana’s statement could be viewed as a signal that the Mashatile camp is leaning towards supporting Ramaphosa at the elective conference. 

He has been considered a key cog in Mashatile’s campaign for deputy president. He is understood to have been the man who helped facilitate the alliance between Mashatile and Limpopo ANC leader Danny Msiza and the Eastern Cape’s Babalo Madikizela. 

Mashatile recently faced the first trial in his campaign when the powerful KwaZulu-Natal province announced that it would reassess its support for him for the position of deputy president. 

The independent panel into the Phala Phala allegations was established as the first step in an impeachment process, in response to a motion filed by the African Transformation Movement.

The panel found that Ramaphosa had a case to answer about the source and sum total of the foreign currency stolen from his farm in February 2020 and the clandestine efforts to recover it.

It further found that the fact that no docket was opened into the burglary pointed to prima facie evidence that the president broke the law by failing to report a theft of more than R100 000 because anti-corruption legislation imposed a duty to do so.

“In our view this information, prima facie, discloses that the president violated section 34(1) read with section 34(2) of [the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act],” the panel said.

There has been extensive debate in legal and political circles as to whether the panel exceeded its narrow remit by basing its conclusions on prima facie, rather than “sufficient”, evidence that the president might have committed a serious breach of the law.