Luthuli House will back President Cyril Ramaphosa if he decides to take action against mineral resources & energy minister Gwede Mantashe for defying him.
ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula told the Sunday Times in an interview this week that Mantashe’s refusal to attend the launch of a European-funded green energy initiative last month amounted to gross defiance — and Ramaphosa has the ANC’s support if he acts against his minister.
Mbalula said Mantashe should know that Ramaphosa is his boss in government.
This comes as there is talk of cracks within Ramaphosa’s cabinet and the camp that helped the president get re-elected at the ANC national conference last December. Mantashe is said to be leading a group that is opposed to the push for the country to move to green energy. This group believes fossil fuels are crucial if South Africa wants to fix the electricity crisis.
Mantashe snubbed last month’s signing ceremony attended by the Danish and Dutch prime ministers. International relations & co-operation minister Naledi Pandor had to be roped in at the eleventh hour to sign on his behalf.
Instead, he attended a Cosatu energy summit that morning despite receiving calls from the Presidency requesting his presence at the signing ceremony.
He confirmed to the Sunday Times that he was invited to the ceremony but refused to sign a document drafted without his input.
Mantashe told the Sunday Times at the time that he refused to attend and “doesn’t sign agreements I have not seen”.
He claimed he had not seen the memorandum of understanding beforehand and was called only on the morning of the signing to say he should come, an instruction he says he refused.
Mbalula this week said Mantashe should not be too complacent about the fact that he was elected to the ANC top leadership with Ramaphosa, as the president was the boss in government.
Mantashe was elected as ANC national chair in December.
This comes as there is talk of cracks within Ramaphosa’s cabinet and the camp that helped the president get re-elected at the ANC national conference last December
Mbalula said that if Ramaphosa wanted to take action against Mantashe, Luthuli House would support him.
“If a minister does not comply, does not do what is expected, the president must act. He has all our support,” said Mbalula.
Mbalula said there was an expectation in the ANC that action should be taken against defiant ministers.
“The report that ministers are defying to sign memorandums like minister Mantashe defied, that question must be answered by the president. Because he [Mantashe] makes government look like a place where anyone do as they wish. The centre must hold,” said Mbalula.
“If I’m in government [and] I’m supposed to sign a bilateral agreement on anything, even if I’ve got reservations, and I’m expected to do that work and I’m present, I must have cogent reasons why we can’t [or] I don’t want to sign. In the ANC it has not come up, I expect those issues to be dealt with by the president. They are on his plate.”
There was a trend of ministers and government officials defying Ramaphosa, which, according to Mbalula, was unacceptable.
“[Nelson] Mandela dismissed people in his cabinet for acting wayward. [Mantashe] would never do that under [Thabo] Mbeki, or under Zuma. Why do people find it easy to undermine Ramaphosa?” said Mbalula.
Mbalula’s remarks show that Luthuli House supports Ramaphosa’s clean energy initiatives. This could also mean that the decades-long political friendship between Mantashe and Ramaphosa has come under strain.
Luthuli House viewed Mantashe’s actions as “a gross undermining of the authority of the president” and action had to be taken.
Mbalula did not specify what he expected Ramaphosa to do but said there had been growing calls for Mantashe to be axed from the cabinet over his persistent refusal to toe the clean energy line.
“National chairman doesn’t hold in government, it ends here in the Luthuli House. In government Ramaphosa is in charge. There the president is in charge, there’s nobody who’s going to tell the president that ‘no I’m here Luthuli House this and that’, the president is the begin and the end in government, he’s the CEO of South Africa,” said Mbalula.
When approached for comment on the sidelines of the ANC national executive committee meeting at the Birchwood Hotel this weekend, Mantashe refused to comment, saying the Sunday Times was “trying to revive a dead story”.
Mantashe has made no secret of his support for the coal lobby and for restoring Eskom’s fleet of coal-fired power stations to end load-shedding.
He reiterated, however, that his refusal to sign does not mean that he is opposed to the development of green energy.
Mbalula said Mantashe’s actions had “embarrassed” Ramaphosa as the president and that he “must act” like he did with ministers who defied him during Covid-19.
“So he doesn’t need Luthuli House to give him permission to act, he must act. He can only come here [to Luthuli House] and inform us [that] ‘SG I’m being undermined here’ and then he acts. So he’s got 100% support,” said Mbalula.
"Those reports, he [Mantashe] must either dispel them if there’s anything of that nature, I cannot answer that, I’ve got a lot to answer here at Luthuli House. The president must deal with those issues.”
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