ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa is on Sunday expected to close the Limpopo provincial conference that elected Phophi Ramathuba as its chairperson.
Ramathuba was elected on a unity slate that emerged at the 11th ANC Limpopo conference, where all the names nominated at the branch level were elected unopposed.
She was elected alongside provincial heavyweight deputy chairperson John Mpe, provincial secretary Reuben Madadzhe, deputy secretary Pule Shai and treasurer Eddie Maila.
Their unity slate was uncontested as the ANC in Limpopo frowned on any leadership contest that could divide the province before the local government elections.
Limpopo is the only ANC province that received more than 70% support at the 2024 national and provincial elections, a position the provincial leadership would want to maintain.
The five elected officials are all known as staunch Ramaphosa allies who played a crucial role in his re-elections as ANC president at the 2022 national conference after the provincial executive committee (PEC) sought to withdraw the province’s support for him.
The officials, most of whom were regional leaders before the provincial conference, had stood firm at the 2022 Nasrec conference, blocking their delegates from being swayed from dumping Ramaphosa.
Though Limpopo had become the first province to endorse Ramaphosa months before, it made an about-turn before voting at the 2022 Nasrec conference, telling delegates at the 11th hour that they would back Zweli Mkhize.
The then chairperson of the province, Stan Mathabatha, addressed hundreds of delegates in the now-popular amabhubesi video clips where he was captured saying, “Wa tsena Khabazela [Mkhize is coming in as president].”
It was Mpe, Shai and Madadzhe who stood against this posture of the PEC getting all five Limpopo regions to tell their delegates they cannot go against their branch mandates that had unanimously endorsed Ramaphosa.
It was this move that turned the tide when it looked like Ramaphosa would lose to Mkhize when the regional leadership took matters into their own hands, marshalling their delegates to a Ramaphosa victory.
Mathabatha later said they had taken the decision to withdraw their support for Ramaphosa after his lobbyists refused to back him for the role of national chairperson.
The onslaught against Mathabatha soon started with some ANC members in Limpopo and nationally calling for his head to an extent that the national working committee had to visit the province to understand the severity of these calls.
But Mathabatha survived the chop, with ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula saying he had “misbehaved” at the Nasrec conference for trying to go against the branch mandate but that it was not a reason to remove him.
“He stood against the position of the province; he misbehaved because the province had a position that Ramaphosa must be president, and then he became a bhubhesi on his way to the conference,” said Mbalula at the time.
“So you can’t chuck a comrade out of the organisation because he held a different view and he misbehaved along the way; you engage around that particular issue.”
Ramaphosa is expected to address the final day of the provincial conference, where his allies are now firmly in charge of the ANC in Limpopo.
Mbalula is also expected to join Ramaphosa on the last day of the conference.
TimesLIVE
Kgothatso Madisa
www.timeslive.co.za
