Newly elected Limpopo ANC chair Stan Mathabatha wants to see President Cyril Ramaphosa re-elected unopposed in December.
Mathabatha reaffirmed his support for Ramaphosa shortly after being overwhelmingly returned for a third term as ANC chair.
He said if Ramaphosa was re-elected without contest it would heal the divisions in the party .
“Our regions, all of them, have agreed that they would want comrade Cyril Ramaphosa to continue, mainly because in this province we believe that we need to try by all means to make the ANC presidency not be contested because once you make it to be contested you create divisions,” he said.
He said the ANC needed to be so clear on who should become party leader that there would be no differing views on who becomes the country’s president.
Come 2007, the ANC presidency was contested, we gave birth to COPE. Mangaung 2012, what happened? EFF
— Limpopo ANC chair Stan Mathabatha
Mathabatha told the Sunday Times that his ideal ANC should normalise a culture of electing its president uncontested.
This proposal, he said, was tried and tested and had worked perfectly during the presidencies of Oliver Tambo, James Moroka, Albert Luthuli and Thabo Mbeki’s first term.
He said divisions in the party were minimal during their tenures because they were elected uncontested, whereas contestation of the presidency had led to the rise of splinter parties such as COPE and the EFF.
“When Nelson Mandela was handing over the baton to comrade Thabo Mbeki he said to the conference delegates: ‘You see comrades, Dr Moroka was elected unopposed and the ANC was united. Luthuli was elected uncontested, the ANC was united. Tambo was elected uncontested, the ANC was united’. Mandela was elected uncontested [and] the ANC was united. Thabo Mbeki was elected in Mahikeng uncontested, the ANC was united, we did not have serious problems.
“But come 2007, the ANC presidency was contested, we gave birth to COPE. Mangaung 2012, the ANC presidency was contested, what happened? EFF. So all the time when you have the ANC presidency being contested [it leads to divisions]. Take Nasrec for instance, we have never healed from the wounds of Nasrec.”
Mathabatha’s proposal is expected to be part of discussions at the party’s policy conference in July.
He supports the call for the party’s controversial step-aside rule to be amended.
According to high-ranking ANC leaders, there is talk that those affected by the rule should be reinstated to their positions if 10 months goes by without finalisation of cases against them.
The Sunday Times understands that Limpopo will push for the ANC to adopt this as a policy at the party’s conference.
It is believed the sponsor is Danny Msiza, the former provincial treasurer who had to step aside after being charged over the looting of VBS Mutual Bank Bank. The case is still ongoing but Msiza was prohibited from standing for provincial secretary at this weekend’s conference.
Mathabatha said making people step aside indefinitely was unfair. “Take the [corruption] case of comrade Jacob Zuma. That case has dragged for something like 18 years and that cannot be right. It means there’s something wrong with the legal system,” he said.
“You arrest people and then you investigate and that cannot be right. You need to investigate first and then arrest, rather than arrest and investigate later, so that you don’t keep a person in limbo for too long.”
Mathabatha was re-elected chair for a third term alongside Florence Radzilani as his deputy, Reuben Madadzhe as provincial secretary, deputised by Basikopo Makamu, and Nakedi Sibanda-Kekana as provincial treasurer.
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