Mpumalanga safety MEC Pat Ngomane has emerged as the front-runner to replace David Mabuza as ANC provincial chairman if Mabuza's bid for a national post is successful.
Mabuza is expected to contest the position of ANC deputy president at the ruling party's elective conference in December on the same ticket as former AU Commission chairman Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, whose backers want her to succeed her former husband, Jacob Zuma.
It is understood that Mabuza might rope former ANC Youth League deputy president Ronald Lamola into the new leadership for Mpumalanga but wants Ngomane to succeed him.
An insider with intimate knowledge of the plan but speaking on condition of anonymity said: "It is a done deal. Of course there will be those who will object but they are in the minority. Mabuza does not work with people he can't trust."
Provincial secretary Mandla Ndlovu said that if Mabuza were elected deputy president the province would have to convene a special meeting of its general council to elect a new chairman, a position Mabuza has held since 2008.
He is understood to prefer a carefully managed transition of power to Ngomane in order to hold the party in the province together.
Lamola was not available for comment and Ngomane was coy but talk of his imminent rise has become open.
EFF Mpumalanga leader Collen Sedibe, a former Mabuza-Ngomane ally turned critic, said it was probable that Ngomane would succeed Mabuza.
"They are very close."
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