President Cyril Ramaphosa’s camp had just minutes to come up with a candidate to replace their deputy secretary general nominee, Febe Potgieter, who caught the faction by surprise after declining the nomination on Saturday.
Insiders in the Ramaphosa faction say that Potgieter told none of the provincial or national executive committee lobbyists that she would decline the nomination.
During the nomination process at Nasrec, Potgieter’s name was called out by the elections agency official charged with overseeing the process, and it was announced that she had sent an email to the ANC electoral committee chair, Kgalema Motlanthe, that she was declining any position as part of the officials.
This left her allies in the Ramaphosa camp “shocked” and “scrambling” to find a last minute replacement, the party leader said. None were able to explain why Potgieter had declined the nomination.
“Febe caught everyone by surprise. She caught us napping. We had to nominate someone from the floor and be quick in thinking and making a decision,” the national executive committee (NEC) member said.
According to the party leader, a suggestion was made by ANC leaders in a Whatsapp group of Ramaphosa allies as the nomination for deputy secretary general continued that Tina Joemat-Pettersson should replace Potgieter.
“No one thought it through. By luck, Tina was a name that had initially been presented as an option and when the comrade suggested it, we all agreed.”
A second NEC leader, who was also privy to the discussions, said that they were afforded more time to come to a decision because of the disruptions caused by Gauteng delegates during the process.
“If you remember Febe’s decision to decline was announced before comrade Nomvula [Mokonyane] was nominated and accepted. So as we were discussing who we should nominate from the floor to replace Febe, that disruption by Gauteng was helping. We had time to weigh all the options and it gave us some breathing space for everyone to make an assessment and agree on comrade Tina,” the party leader said.
The two Ramaphosa allies and NEC members added that the nomination of Joemat-Pettersson would address the issue of gender and geographical spread among ANC officials.
“Tina comes from the Northern Cape. Yes, it’s small but it’s a stable, united and strong province. She also addresses the minority group question and the representation of women. She was the ideal replacement and we were happy that she was willing to come onboard despite the short notice. It was tough, Febe almost held us back,” the party leader said.
Until Saturday evening the Ramaphosa faction had no clear line-up to go up against Zweli Mkhize and his supporters.
Several meetings to consolidate a line-up had either collapsed or deviated to a later time in the week leading to the Nasrec conference.
On Friday, negotiations between Mpumalanga provincial leaders and the Eastern Cape leaned towards Oscar Mabuyane, with Ronald Lamola favoured for treasurer general. The negotiations between the two camps favoured Lamola’s nomination coming from the floor as he had been nominated for the deputy president position by branches.
According to the party leaders, the battle for nomination for deputy president between Mabuyane and Lamola could have a lasting effect on the faction.
The party leaders said several attempts were made to convince Lamola to withdraw from the race and instead consider the treasurer general position, but he refused. According to regional leaders who attended a meeting of Ramaphosa allies on Saturday afternoon, almost all provincial and NEC members in attendance were of the view that Lamola must withdraw.
ANC leaders raised concern that the Ramaphosa faction could not enter the race of deputy president with two candidates, including Fikile Mbalula and Sbongile Besani.
“Ronald asked to be convinced why he should withdraw. He was in a meeting which put forward a proposal to say ‘you should consider dropping out of the race’. He did say he has no problem dropping out but he has to be convinced. This was disappointing. He has really disappointed a lot of us.”
“You can’t say you are not married to a position and you are willing to withdraw but only if you are convinced. No one was interested in convincing him. Almost everyone grasped that he is practically saying he is not withdrawing. The meeting was attended by provincial leaders and NEC members,” the regional leader said, adding that Lamola was banking on the younger delegation at the conference identifying with him as the person to lead them.
The regional leader said the Mpumalanga provincial leaders who attended the meeting had initially made attempts to sway the caucus towards Lamola by wooing Mbalula.
“Mpumalanga provincial leaders were the only ones who spoke on behalf of Lamola. They announced that they would backtrack support for Mdumiseni Ntuli and support Mbalula in an attempt to sway the discussion in favour of Lamola.”
They added that Eastern Cape leaders in turn said they had also resolved to support Mbalula and ditch Ntuli.
