In case you didn’t know, there’s one helluva power struggle going on within the ANC.

Sure, Cyril Ramaphosa might be the man at the helm, but with each passing day, it’s becoming clearer how the knives are being sharpened.

Amongst his current set of challenges, the increasing attacks from ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule and his cronies are perhaps the most pressing.

Over the weekend, whilst speaking at a Walter Sisulu memorial lecture, Magashule barely bothered to hide his verbal assault, with many pundits saying this is his most brazen attack on the president yet.

News24 editor-in-chief Adriaan Basson certainly thinks so, saying that “Ramaphosa’s got mutiny on his hands”:

The ANC is now clearly divided between the Ramaphosa camp which champions economic growth, non-racialism and anti-corruption, and the Magashule camp which champions conspiracies, victimhood and blames white people for all the country’s ills.

Magashule is now in open defiance of the ANC president as the party goes into its crucial national executive committee (NEC) meeting where the composition of the next ANC will be discussed.

Ramaphosa has to deal with Magashule, decisively and soon.

The former Free State premier, who is himself deeply implicated in years of state capture and corruption, is on a mission to besmirch Ramaphosa’s name and efforts to rebuild South Africa.

Ace is singing from a familiar song sheet, trotting out all of the Zuma / Gupta ‘White Monopoly Capital’ greatest hits. Whilst Ramaphosa is doing his best to encourage foreign investment, the mutinous faction wants to ensure that they can boot the president before he brings to them to book for their crimes.

Here’s a real quote from Magashule’s speech this weekend:

“We cannot allow a few of us to be co-opted into the power structure of the (mainly white) rich, while many (indeed most black and African people) still remain poor. We cannot defeat White Monopoly Capital by allowing it to co-opt us.”

Hmm, I wonder who he is having a dig at?

Magashule’s diatribe against WMC on Saturday was clearly aimed at Ramaphosa. When he says “a few of us” have been co-opted by white business, he means Ramaphosa. More specifically, Magashule was probably referring to Ramaphosa’s business breakfast with Goldman Sachs last week during which he assured investors that expropriation without compensation would be handled with the greatest care and sensitivity.

Magashule isn’t interested in nuance solutions. He is a populist, only interested in saving his own skin. He has learned well from his mentor, Zuma; play the victim, stoke the conspiracies and blame white capital for all your problems.

Hey, it worked for Jacob for the best part of a decade…

Ultimately, Magashule and the crooked cabal know that if Ramaphosa retains power long enough to oversee the National Prosecuting Authority’s state capture prosecution kicking off, there’s big trouble.

That’s why the secretary-general, and those in a similar position, are doing their best to neutralise Ramaphosa and his power, with the hope of ousting him at the next, and crucial, national executive committee (NEC) meeting.

The knives are out.

[source:news24]