Zamani Saul blasts Magashule

POLITICS

Just moments before his uncontested re-election as chairperson of the ANC in the Northern Cape on Friday evening, Zamani Saul delivered an uncompromising speech about the role of the secretary-general in the ANC, resulting in a devastating critique of the suspended incumbent, Ace Magashule.

Saul delivered the political report at the Northern Cape conference in Springbok, where deputy chairperson Bentley Vass, secretary Daluxolo Ngxanga, deputy secretary Maruping Lekwene and treasurer Fufe Makatong were also re-elected to their positions without contest.

“Our former secretaries-general, some of them very young, always served as the central pillars in the life of the organisation. None of [them ever] posed an existential risk to the organisation. What’s happening now is unprecedented.

“If you have a secretary-general with uncontrolled political ambitions, you’ll always [have] problems,” he said.

Saul explained that the secretary-general was the first line of defence for the governing party and, when it was facing challenges, the person occupying that role was expected to rise to the occasion and do the heavy lifting. This, he said, had not been the case in recent times.

“As far as I know, in the history of the organisation and all 15 of its former secretaries-general, this is the first time the ANC has confronted such a peculiar problem, where the secretary-general is deeply compromised.

“So, comrades, there are no historical lessons here – only [the question of] how best to deal with the current problem, because [we’ve never had] a secretary-general with distorted logic about his role, thinking he was above the organisation and its constitution, above conference resolutions and above the national executive committee [NEC].”

He added: “When the secretary-general becomes conflicted and so deeply entangled that he’s central to the problem that confronts the organisation, then it’s a grave challenge. That’s basically where we are today.”

Saul stressed that there had never been a secretary-general who had expressed an ambition to become the president of the ANC, nor one who had tried to remove its sitting president.

Only Oliver Tambo and Cyril Ramaphosa had ended up leading the ANC after being elected secretaries-general. However, Saul emphasised that, in those instances, their other ambitions were expressed long after serving in the secretary-general’s office.

Last month, after being suspended for failing to step aside in line with the NEC resolution that states that members of the party who are facing criminal charges must voluntarily do so, Magashule instead issued a suspension letter to the president.

He did so without a mandate or the authorisation of either the NEC or the national working committee.

The party has demanded that Magashule apologise to Ramaphosa, but he has not yet done so.

The suspended secretary-general has instead opted to take the ANC to court in a bid to have his temporary suspension reversed.

Saul, a staunch Ramaphosa supporter, lamented the dangers of conflict between the president and secretary-general, saying it was a fight that resulted in the worst form of disunity.

He went down memory lane to show how these roles had previously been occupied, recalling that when they were secretaries-general, both Walter Sisulu and Duma Nokwe had worked harmoniously with the presidents at the time.

Sisulu served as the ninth secretary-general of the ANC between 1948 and 1955. Nokwe, at the age of just 31, became the 11th secretary-general, serving from 1958 to 1969.

“They worked very closely with the then presidents because they fully appreciated the fact that the president – who’s the head of the organisation – and the secretary-general, who’s the head of administration, constitute the centre of gravity in the work of the organisation,” he said.

With just 18 months until the next ANC national conference, Saul suggested that from July this year until November next year, the party convene monthly political lectures on the lives and legacies of each of its 16 secretaries-general.

His re-election came as no surprise, as the regional conferences in the Northern Cape have been held without contest and he himself declared, while delivering his political report, that the province was united.

While Saul did acknowledge that there were slight differences within the provincial executive committee, he said its members displayed enough maturity to overcome those issues and ensure that they did not filter into the party’s regions and branches.

Queenin Masuabi  Political Journalist +27 11 713 9001 Queenin.Masuabi@citypress.co.za www.citypress.co.za 69 Kingsway Rd, Auckland Park