Three-way face-off for ANC’s top job in Limpopo

As the ANC in Limpopo prepares for its conference next year, Polokwane mayor John Mpe, premier Phophi Ramathuba and Mopani district mayor Pule Shayi have emerged as the three favourites for the post of provincial chairperson.

However, Mpe alleges there has been a targeted campaign by his detractors to have him arrested over corruption allegations in a bid to force him to step aside and to prevent him from running for the position.

In leaked documents that surfaced on social media last month, Mpe and the Polokwane municipality manager Thuso Nemugumoni are accused of corruption over awarding a tender worth R56 million to Nemungumoni’s boyfriend.

Mpe denied the allegation, saying his accusers were creating a false impression that they were whistleblowers exposing corruption in the city because they were unhappy about being cut off from contracts.

The Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation has since withdrawn a court application to force the municipality and Mpe’s Makoro Foundation to provide it with bank statements to check whether he had received kickbacks from companies doing business with the city via his foundation.

“I believe that there is this issue of trying to abuse the step-aside [rule].

“If you can check, investigations have become so much intensified [ahead of the regional] conference and political persecution has also intensified towards major political events where people would want others to step aside,” Mpe said.

“We have seen when we were going toward the regional conference, where at some stage they [his detractors] would write that you are going to be arrested tomorrow and at some stage people were at a police station having a night vigil saying I’m going to be arrested the following day.”

The ANC’s step-aside rule stipulates that any member who has been criminally charged cannot contest a conference, attend or speak at party events or hold any public office until the matter is resolved in court.

Former Limpopo treasurer Danny Msiza was one of the casualties of the rule, after being forced to relinquish his position in August 2021 over his alleged involvement in the VBS Mutual Bank scandal, which also prevented him from running for positions at the provincial conference in 2022.

Asked by the Mail & Guardian whether he would be running for the chairperson position at the provincial conference, Mpe downplayed his ambitions, saying the branches would decide what they wanted.

“What we need to do is allow branches to decide who should lead the province and we will all be subjected to the views of the branches.

“If the branches accept somebody else, I will also accept the decision of the branches.”

Responding to questions from the M&G on whether Ramathuba would be contesting any positions at the provincial conference, her spokesperson Ndavhe Ramakuela said the process for candidates to accept nominations had not yet been opened, adding: “You shall be at liberty to ask such once that process has opened.”

Mpe’s re-election as the ANC regional chair for the Peter Mokaba district two months ago did not run smoothly. The conference was marred by violent clashes and delays, with the police having to intervene and some delegates challenging the legitimacy of the proceedings.

Disgruntled members staged a walkout and approached the courts on an urgent basis, but the matter was dismissed.

Mpe was elected unopposed for his third term as chair.

ANC provincial secretary Reuben Madadzhe insisted at the time that the conference was legitimate, saying: “You will never have a bogus conference of the ANC with four provincial elective conference officials attending the conference.”

Regardless, the legitimacy of not just the Peter Mokaba but also the Vhembe and Mopape regional conferences are being disputed in court, although all bids to hear the challenges on an urgent basis were dismissed.

The M&G understands that, after the disputes were lodged, the ANC national working committee resolved to send a team to the province to investigate the veracity of the allegations made by those who took the party to court.

According to sources, the committee’s investigations are complete and its report will be considered and ultimately taken to the national executive committee to decide on the next course of action.

Mpe told the M&G that the disgruntled delegates had wanted to postpone the regional  conference for two weeks, adding that their complaint would have been legitimate if they alleged that they had been robbed of their votes.

“If you are winning, and branches prefer you, then why can’t you go and win the conference?

“They were refusing the branches to exercise their constitutional rights from the ANC.

“Some people have become so selfish that they would rather sink the whole ship merely because they cannot be captains,” he said.

A provincial executive committee source said who becomes Limpopo chair will largely be determined by the outcome of the national working committee’s investigations into the regional conferences.

“There’s a poster of Pule Shayi, there’s a poster of Phophi [Ramathuba] for chair and another one for John [Mpe] as a provincial chair, so all that we know at this stage is that three people are vying for the position of the provincial chair,” they said.

“If you go to the conference now, it might not give you a clear picture because we have to wait for the issue of the disputed conference.

“So, a discussion on the race is premature when you have these issues that are hanging.”

The insider added: “If the report comes back nullifying the outcomes of Peter Mokaba regions, it weakens the campaign of John. If the report also nullifies outcomes of Vhembe, it weakens Madadzhe because the leadership aligns to him. If the report also comes and nullifies the outcomes of Mopani, then it weakens Pule [Shayi] because the elected leadership is led by him.”

ANC branches in the province are also calling for the top five positions to be diversified, by ensuring that all of Limpopo’s five regions have a representative.

The source said the constitution of the party requires that the composition of the provincial executive committee must take into consideration the geographic spread of the province.

But they said the argument that the top five must come from different regions was not valid because leadership is not dependent on where one comes from but on the ability to take the movement forward.

“If you look at the current status quo, both the deputy chair and the secretary are from Vhembe and the organisation continues to survive.

“Just before the current leadership, both the provincial treasurer and the chairperson were from Sekhukhune, namely, comrade Danny Msiza and Chupe Mathabatha.”

ANC provincial spokesperson Jimmy Machaka said the ANC had not yet opened the succession debate. While noting the social media hype on preferred individuals, he said it would be premature to discuss the leadership question when the term of the current leadership only comes to an end next June.

Despite members having a constitutional right to take the organisation to court, the party frowned on members who did so without exhausting internal remedies and the courts must be a last resort, he said.

“In the same vein, we continue to urge our structure not to do anything that will precipitate members going to court. In all that we do, we must do it according to the rule book and the guidelines,” Machaka said.

Some branches in the province were reportedly calling for an early conference so the party could focus on next year’s elections.

Machaka said the provincial executive committee had discussed the matter but would leave it to branches because, in terms of the party constitution, only they can make a determination for the leadership to call an early conference.

Another source told the M&G continued infighting in the province would have dire consequences for the party.

“When elephants are fighting, the grass becomes the victim. In this case, the ANC will be the victim. How do we go campaigning after whoever wins the conference and say people must vote for the ANC when people are accusing each other of corruption?”

The source added that Madanzhe was also likely to dump Ramathuba in support of Mpe in the provincial conference.

“There are five regions in the province and there’s a conversation that we should have all the regions represented in the top five positions,” they said.

“Phophi [Ramathuba] and the secretary are from Vembe and we can’t have two people from Vembe, so he might be left with no choice but to join the Mpe camp because we know Phophi will contest Mpe.”