House+divided+cripples+ANC,+Mbele+and+Malefane,+Sunday+Times

Sunday Times, Johannesburg, 09 July 2006
=A House divided cripples ANC=


 * //Party headquarters riven by suspicion, absenteeism and confusion as rival factions jockey for position in the ongoing Zuma-Mbeki battle//**


 * WALLY MBHELE and MOIPONE MALEFANE**

IT WAS some time in April this year that ANC secretary-general Kgalema Motlanthe arrived back in his office from a visit to Cuba to find copies of the party’s internal publication, Umrabulo, waiting for distribution to the party faithful.

He was taken aback to see, on page 52, an article by members of the party’s national executive committee (NEC) political education sub-committee addressing the challenges of leadership as the party prepared for its 52nd national conference.

This was at a time when the party’s deputy president, Jacob Zuma, was still in the dock facing rape allegations.

Umrabulo had gone to the printers while Motlanthe was in Cuba; the party’s head of presidency Smuts Ngonyama was off sick; and ANC head President Thabo Mbeki was engaged with his busy government schedule.

In effect, the party had been left to administrative staff to run. Absenteeism had defined life at Luthuli House since the Jacob Zuma saga began the previous year.

Motlanthe is known as a well-mannered and soft-spoken person, but he was unable to contain himself as he summoned his administrative staff to his office.

He demanded to know who had authorised publication of the article, written by NEC members Joel Netshitenzhe, Enoch Godongwana and Mandla Nkomfe.

He was told that the document had come from Netshitenzhe, a senior member of the Umrabulo editorial committee — but that was not good enough for Motlanthe.

He ordered that all copies of the publication be brought to him, to be locked away in his office. No one would have access to the publication until he ordered otherwise, he told his shocked staff.

The document, which presents two options for the election of the next ANC president, was subsequently discussed by the party’s NEC, and then referred to the national working committee (NWC) for further deliberation.

The document sets out the arguments for either retaining the current ANC president (Mbeki), or electing a new leader. The advantages and disadvantages of both options are given.

Eventually, Umrabulo was posted on the party’s website with a disclaimer: “The ANC places on record that the article, ‘Contextual considerations in addressing challenges of leadership’, that appears in Umrabulo No. 25 of May 2006, does not constitute the views of the ANC NEC, or the ANC political education NEC sub-committee, but contains the views of the following individuals: Joel Netshitenzhe, Enoch Godongwana and Mandla Nkomfe.”

The three are said to have been shocked when they heard that their submission had been dealt with in this way by the secretary-general — who went even further, describing the document as having no standing in the ANC.

This, even though the three officials are members of the party’s NEC political education sub-committee — and the document’s hard copy clearly states that it was prepared for Umrabulo.

Why Motlanthe did not want it featured in the party’s publication has never been explained.

Some officials believe Motlanthe’s antagonism towards the article stems from the fact that he believes that the scenarios and options presented in it effectively exclude Zuma from running for the party’s presidency.

The article does not say anything about the party’s deputy president becoming an automatic choice to succeed Mbeki as the party’s president.

But ANC insiders themselves admit that this is mere speculation.

What is clear is that behind Motlanthe’s reaction is a deep rift that runs through the workings of Luthuli House.

The party’s head office in downtown Johannesburg has come close to a state of paralysis as a result of the widening distance between its office bearers — a mere 14 months before the party goes to its crucial conference where a new leadership will be elected.

It is now more than a year since Mbeki dismissed Zuma as South Africa’s deputy president, but the party’s headquarters continue to be crippled by the fallout.

According to the party’s functionaries, there are clear divisions, resentments and suspicions among officials.

So senior are the levels affected by these divisions that a story is circulating at the party’s head office of how Ngonyama — one of Mbeki’s trusted men at Luthuli House — spent more than six weeks on sick leave without a call from Motlanthe, never mind a courtesy visit.

Ngonyama was hurt by this obvious lack of comradely concern from the secretary-general.

The only time Motlanthe spoke to him during this period, according to senior officials, was when he invited him to a special NEC meeting — from May 26 to 28 this year — following Zuma’s acquittal on a rape charge.

The two men — along with the party’s deputy secretary general, Sankie Mthembi-Mahanyele — are the most senior ANC officials running the affairs of the party from its head office.

The situation is so tense that some officials hardly speak to each other nowadays, ANC insiders say.

Mthembi-Mahanyele herself — also seen as an Mbeki ally, although she is keen to maintain her independence — is said to be caught in the middle of the raging war.

Senior staffers at Luthuli House say the reason for high absenteeism from the office stems from the fact that the two can barely tolerate each other nowadays.

And the tragedy, staffers say, is that when the elephants are fighting, it is the grass that suffers.

This was illustrated by the example given by a member of an ANC’s regional executive committee.

He told of how branch members sent him to Luthuli House to seek answers as no information was forthcoming about “where the party was going”.

“They [branch members] did not believe us when we told them we are receiving no communication from the head office,” he says.

“They were complaining that all they hear about the organisation was Zuma, Zuma and nothing else. Nothing about the organisation’s political programmes.”

He said that when he arrived at Luthuli House, he demanded to see “Kgalema, and I was told that he was away. I was told to nevertheless write a letter requesting a meeting if I wanted to see him. I then asked to see Smuts. I was told that he is still off sick — but I had heard him talking on the radio the previous day. When I said I wanted to see Comrade Sankie, they told me she is also not available.

“The only person who could help me, I was told, was a junior official who also was not in his office at the time as he had gone to play Lotto. I returned empty- handed, with nothing to report back to members,” he said.

Such is the confusion that the Sunday Times has been told that the KwaZulu-Natal provincial leadership is “seriously” considering calling for the party’s national conference — due in December next year — to be brought forward.

An NEC member said that Luthuli House “has become moribund” as a result of its division into the Mbeki and Zuma factions.

The opposing factions are engaged in what the NEC member describes as a “silent battle to wrest control of the ANC from the influence of each other. They are not working as a unit.”

It is an epic battle that could “soon blow out into the open if it is not properly managed”, according to an NEC official. Efforts by the party’s NEC to compel Mbeki and Zuma to take the lead in dealing with their animosity towards each other have come to naught — because Zuma is convinced he is the target of a political conspiracy, and Mbeki does not believe that such a conspiracy exists.

Officials are unable to reassure branches and regions that the ANC is united at the top because “no evidence exists that they [Zuma and Mbeki] are united”.

When Luthuli House officials are not away from their desks because of “sick leave”, they are said to devote much of their time to their private business interests, leaving little or no time for organisational work.

According to an NEC member, “no one seems to know which direction the party is taking. With the Zuma saga still hanging above our heads, comrades no longer see eye to eye, they do not trust one another and they operate within factions or as individuals.”

Mbeki’s unhappiness with Motlanthe is believed to date from the latter’s association with “the manufacturers” of the notorious hoax e-mails purporting to reveal a political conspiracy against Zuma.

Mbeki dismissed the “evidence” of a conspiracy that emerged from the e-mails, but Motlanthe is said to have insisted that such a plot existed, and even tried to convince his fellow NEC members that the messages were authentic.

“He sought to convince the NEC that the people behind the e-mails should be dismissed from the party.

“He insisted that they be investigated, although there was evidence that they were a figment of somebody’s imagination.

“We are still at a loss as to why Kgalema sought to convince us there was a conspiracy when all evidence suggested otherwise.”

The dim view that Mbeki took of the e-mail saga was demonstrated by his axing of former National Intelligence Agency Director-General Billy Masetlha.

It was Masetlha who had first sought to convince Mbeki about the authenticity of the e-mails. The matter is currently a subject of criminal investigation.

Mbeki is said to have been greatly annoyed when Motlanthe pushed for the e-mails to be tabled for discussion at the party’s NEC.

Although Motlanthe knew that Mbeki did not believe that they were genuine, he nevertheless “created tensions within the NEC” by distributing copies of the e-mails to members for discussion. Motlanthe, according to an NEC official, did not tell Mbeki and other office bearers about their origins — nor did he reveal his “source”.

He also neglected to inform the party’s national working committee that he was going to table them for discussion at the NEC.

That created more tensions, which eventually swept across Luthuli House — with one official claiming that “some people have their own intelligence-gathering, not known to other party officials”.

Although the e-mails were yet another source of division within the party — and received wide media coverage — regions and branches have still not been told how the party is dealing with the matter.

“We often read about these things in newspapers. For instance, we heard that the ANC wants to discipline JZ. The following day Kgalema said nothing like it would ever happen. That [pattern] has become a way of life for ordinary members,” said a regional executive member.

“To be honest, comrade, we need the wisdom of Solomon to survive this turbulence,” said a party official. Another NEC member, speaking to the Sunday Times last week, told of how he recently contacted Motlanthe to ask him what was “really” happening in the party.

He said he did not know what direction the party was taking, despite being an NEC member himself.

“I can no longer perform my constituency work, because I do not have answers to questions posed to me by ANC branches.

“I fear that we are heading towards a situation where branches are going to take matters into their own hands when we go to the 2007 conference, because ANC leaders are not providing leadership. We are all confused,” he said.

He said although the party’s national policy conference, which was supposed to be held in December this year, had been postponed to next year, party structures had not been informed of this.

He was echoing what many other ANC leaders think about the current state of affairs within the party.

“The saga around the party’s deputy, Zuma, has indeed crippled the ANC,” he said.

Another NEC member summed up his observation of the party’s head office as follows: “Luthuli House is ‘functional’ because there are people employed to work there. But, in all honesty, Luthuli House is not functioning.

“At the last NEC meeting it was decided that the leadership should go to branches to revitalise the provincial structures and branches.

“It was agreed that the joint statement between Zuma and Mbeki pledging to work and co-operate with each other should form a foundation to bring about unity in the party.

“That has not happened. No one is prepared to go to the branches because people can see that Zuma and Mbeki do not talk to each other.

“So what are we supposed to do? Is Kgalema not supposed to co-ordinate those efforts of going to the branches?

“People are reluctant to do it. They claim that there is no unity in the party.

“They are supposed to inform the branches that there is unity in the party, a good plan in place to manage succession and plan to improve relations between Cosatu, the SACP and the ANC,” he said.

“National office is supposed to brief the provinces, who in turn must brief the branches about the plan” — but the officials themselves do not believe in the plan, he said.

Another problem, according to insiders, is that Mbeki and Zuma’s truce of September last year was so short-lived.

The two presented a statement claiming that they were going to work together to bring unity in the organisation.

In the statement they said they had “started a process of intensive interactions between themselves to develop a practical approach to the issues in a manner that would best serve the interests of the movement and the country as a whole”.

Mbeki and Zuma vowed to submit proposals to officials and the NWC, which would then be submitted to the NEC “to enable it to have a substantive and constructive discussion of the matters at issue”.

Although the plan was supposed to reach the regions within two weeks, it never did.

“We are facing challenges similar to 1990 after we decided to abandon the armed struggle. Structures were hostile when we had to convey the message.

“Kgalema is supposed to marshal the plan of communicating with the provinces and branches, but he has not started.

“If it is not done this year, they will run out of time because the provinces are preparing for provincial conferences ahead of the 2007 conference and the policy conference.

“It seems we are headed for another NGC-type of situation [when a meeting of the National General Council in June last year saw astonishing scenes of an open rebellion against Mbeki’s firing of Zuma].

“All hell will break loose when we convene for both the policy and the national conferences next year,” said the official.

“The policy conference, which is supposed to deal with policy matters will — like the NGC — end up dealing with the leadership crisis. Members will hijack it.

“Once the JZ corruption trial starts, the political work will stop again; you cannot go to the branches talking about unity when JZ is on trial. The party will have to wait until the trial is finished.”

Another senior official concurred with what many others said about Luthuli House: “Luthuli House is functioning as individuals and factions instead of a leadership collective.

“This has led to officials not trusting one another because of the Zuma saga. For instance, some comrades prefer to use their private computers at their houses for office work.”

He cited as an example Motlanthe’s decision to work from his Centurion, Tshwane, home when he was preparing for the internal Jele commission which is currently looking at the e-mail saga.

According to the official, “people who have invested their political future in Zuma are worsening the situation”.

“These are individuals who publicly defend him, not the ANC. Most party members now want the problem to be solved by the party elders because the current leadership has failed.

“They have succeeded in creating camps, which does not help the situation. The two [Mbeki and Zuma] cannot even meet because their right-hand people would not advise them to.”

Others said that “Motlanthe’s office is not powerful. He has been reduced to an office administrator.”

“Motlanthe and his deputy [Mthembi-Mahanyele] have not seen eye to eye since they were elected. Mthembi-Mahanyele’s duties were never clearly outlined, so she does not really do much work. That is why she is never at the office.

“Motlanthe is supposed to liaise with province to implement decisions that have been taken, but sometimes there is no money as Treasurer-General Mendi Msimang refuses to release funds. Like everybody, he is also never at work.

“It is the [ANC] presidency that is more powerful at Luthuli House. The policy unit, international relations unit and communication unit are all based in the presidency.

“However, the people who are supposed to be heading some of these units are never in the office because they either have their day jobs or they just don’t come to office.”

It would seem that everyone is currently focusing on the Union Buildings for party decisions.

“This suits Mbeki well because there is talk that he should be elected back as party president. If indeed this happens, the party’s focus will shift back to Luthuli House,” said a former official who had worked at ANC headquarters.

But others argued that Mbeki could not run the risk of an ANC third term because he is well aware that the Zuma camp has its knives sharpened, waiting to mount a heavy ambush against such a plan.


 * From: http://www.sundaytimes.co.za/articles/article.aspx?ID=ST6A194575**

2887 words