Third term for Saul in Northern Cape ANC

By PHAKAMISA MAYABA

In what could be regarded as a lacklustre outcome, Dr Zamani Saul has been elected unopposed for a third term as ANC chairperson in the Northern Northern Cape. Four other top party officials have also been returned to their positions.

All this happened at the party’s 10th elective conference held in Kimberley on Tuesday 22 April. Saul is also serving his second term as premier of the Northern Cape.

Saul first rose to the ANC provincial leadership in May 2017, amid widely publicised infighting between the CR17 vs NDZ factions prior to the ANC’s fateful national elective conference at Nasrec later that year. Saul – who bet his future on Ramaphosa’s ‘new dawn’ – triumphed over then premier Sylvia Lucas, and has not been challenged since.

Those power battles transpired in Colesberg, Toverview’s backyard. While Saul was preparing that year’s provincial elective conference in his capacity as party provincial secretary, Lucas embarked on a last-ditch cabinet reshuffle aimed at purging it of Saul’s supporters. The mounting intra-party conflict led to a march on Luthuli House in Johannesburg, unexpectedly resulting in Lucas and her slate withdrawing their nominations.

Saul was re-elected in 2021 and has returned unopposed once again, either due to his skill at banishing his enemies to feed on wild honey and locusts in the political wilderness, or because the CR17 brigade continues to call the shots.

During his keynote speech on Tuesday night, Saul emphasised the need to maintain party unity, and cautioned against divisions that could arise from electoral processes. Interestingly, he referred to the shots allegedly fired at a vehicle carrying Deputy President Paul Mashatile as an example of how divisions within the party could be deepened ahead of the 2027 elective conference. (Even more interestingly, he said this before the alleged incident was made public.)

“There will always be conferences of the ANC, but our responsibility as leaders is to ensure a smooth transition in managing the organisation’s politics and internal contradictions. Our first imperative is to build unity,” he said.

Indeed, amid continued internal tensions and dwindling electoral support, it would appear that the ANC in the Northern Cape is managing to preserve what continues to elude its national and many of its provincial counterparts – party unity, or at least its illusion.

Post Polokwane, provincial conferences have often been the murky sites of underhanded tactics, marked by cadres trading blows and duffel bags stuffed with hard cash changing hands. They are usually nasty affairs riddled with infighting and innuendo, and certainly do not instill confidence in merit and upright leadership being the stairway to the throne. Generally they leave those left out in the cold with bitter scores to settle, and social media provide a ready vehicle for dissidents and prowling trolls.

But Saul and Deputy Provincial Chairperson Bentley Vaas, Provincial Secretary Deshi Ngxanga, Deputy Provincial Secretary Maruping Lekwene and Provincial Treasurer Fufe Makatong will view their re-election as a major vote of confidence as well as a mandate to attend to the province’s problems. Among their immediate stated goals were to consolidate the ANC in the province with the hope of effectively tackling grass roots issues.

According to Saul, key focus areas include economic growth, attracting investor confidence, strengthening international partnerships, strengthening oversight and accountability as well as ensuring service delivery.

In the bigger scheme, however, these elective conferences foreshadow the future of the ANC. According to some pundits, Ramaphosa’s ‘thuma mina’ (send me) presidential campaign was less a clarion call to honour the prescriptions of the Mass Democratic Revolution than a well-orchedstrated attempt to ensure that the national baton was passed to a more palatable figure than his predecessor or any of his acolytes. That is, the sort of measured guy who would appeal to the sensibilities of the comrades without spooking capital, while preserving some decorum in respect of hot topics such as restitution.

As demonstrated during Jacob Zuma’s presidental tenure, premiers hold significant sway in the power and numbers game. For a time, uMsholozi could count on his troika in the so-called Premier League (Supra Mahumapelo in North West, Ace Magashule in the Free State and DD Mabuza in Mpumalanga) to have his back — until the astute Mabuza chose to plunge a knife into it at Nasrec instead.

That left the League severely weakened before being eventually demoted to personae non grata, as Ramaphosa began shuffling opponents to obscure portfolios and turning a blind eye when law enforcement started knocking on the doors of those with smallanyana skeletons in their closets.

With Zuma having jumped the ANC ship, and a few of his staunch supporters swimming after him, those who still pray at the altar of Ramaphoria may well represent the future of the ANC. Once a close Zuma ally, Mashatile is dogged by suspicions of corruption, and despite his deputy presidency is seemingly being given a wide berth by the main ous.

So much so that his recent claims of an attempt on his life have hardly raised the sort of alarm one would expect to follow such an incident. It would therefore not  come as much of a surprise if Saul from dustbowl Petrusville were to ascend to the big leagues of power. All that Northern Cape people can hope for is that he will at least leave a more prosperous and functional province behind.

FEATURED IMAGE: The newly elected ANC leadership in the Northern Cape. News Central on Instagram.

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This is an edited version of an article that first appeared on Phakamisa Mayaba’s website, eParkeni. Used with permission.