ANC deputy president Paul Mashatile has described as “strange” the party’s former president Jacob Zuma’s move to lead the newly established MK Party while still claiming to be a member of the ANC.
Mashatile has for the first time since Zuma’s decision to join and lead the MK Party commented on the matter, saying it was in breach of the ANC’s constitution.
He said several people left the ANC for different reasons, including former secretary-general Ace Magashule, who was expelled and has since established the African Congress for Transformation (ACT), which will be contesting the upcoming elections, and Carl Niehaus, who was also expelled and has since joined the EFF.
“President Zuma on the other hand has decided to form a new party [but] says he’s still a member of the ANC,” said Mashatile in an interview.
“It’s strange because he’s working against the ANC but says he just wants to fix it and has not left. But the secretary-general is dealing with this matter with him to say, ‘as a member you are actually violating the constitution. In fact you might recall that the secretary-general said we’re going take you to a disciplinary hearing because as a member you are violating the constitution.’”
Mashatile has a long-standing political rivalry with Zuma stemming from his time as the chair of the ANC in Gauteng. Under the stewardship of Mashatile, the ANC in the province was known to rally behind every candidate who challenged Zuma.
He has not appeared before the DC, he has given reasons why he couldn’t come, but he has never said, ‘no, I’m leaving.’
— Paul Mashatile, ANC deputy president
Ahead of the 2017 ANC Nasrec conference, Gauteng was one of the first provinces to pronounce its support for Cyril Ramaphosa, who went on to win against Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, a Zuma candidate.
In 2022 Mashatile again became key in Ramaphosa’s re-election which in return secured him the position of deputy president.
The ANC in January suspended Zuma’s membership and took him to its disciplinary committee, which is investigating whether he should be expelled for various transgressions, including “vitriolic” public attacks on the party and its leaders since he started leading the MK Party in December.
If upheld, Zuma will be the first ANC president since its unbanning to be expelled.
Mashatile told TimesLIVE Premium that Zuma was yet to appear before a disciplinary hearing.
“He has not appeared before the DC, he has given reasons why he couldn’t come, but he has never said, ‘no, I’m leaving,’” said Mashatile.
Mashatile said the party was not worried about people who left the ANC to form or join other political parties, including Zuma.
“People leave for different reasons, and I’m sure they can explain themselves, but we are not worried about them, we think there are many leaders who are staying, a lot of our former presidents are still there. Thabo Mbeki is there, Kgalema [Motlanthe] is there, and they are doing a lot of work to ensure that the ANC succeeds,” he said.
Others in the ANC believe the departures are a sign that the party’s renewal programme is in full swing. They believe that only those with clouds hanging over their heads are leaving.
But Mashatile believes that as much as the renewal programme will see some people leaving, the programme’s intention is not to simply chuck people out but to strengthen the party.
“You recall that we didn’t bring renewal [for] cleansing the rot, renewal was about strengthening the ANC and its values of selflessness, of integrity and all that. So whoever abides by that is really free to remain in the ANC — we are not chucking people away,” he said.
“Because I think it will be wrong to say renewal means now you must identify people and say ‘you leave, you leave’. No, we’re saying to people let’s make sure that as the ANC we are trusted by the communities because we do the right things, we deal with corruption, we deal with all shenanigans that have been besieging us, we deal decisively with the issues of state capture because we set up that commission so we must implement its recommendations as the ANC itself because we are the leader of government at the moment.
“So we did that renewal commission in the ANC to be able to say how we change the ANC to make it a better organisation that can deal with issues people are raising in a credible way [and] be seen as a credible organisation, so in a sense protecting the brand itself. It may well be that in the process some people find they don’t fit in and leave.”
Mashatile played a critical role in the recall of Zuma from the Union Buildings in February 2018 after the election of Ramaphosa as ANC president.
As the then treasurer-general, Mashatile was mandated by the ANC's top six to brief party MPs on the national executive committee (NEC) decision to recall Zuma.
Because Zuma was refusing to resign, Mashatile, after the caucus meeting, told the media that they had directed then chief whip Jackson Mthembu to table a motion of no confidence in Zuma.
Mashatile led the briefing of investors on the decision to recall Zuma in a closed meeting on the sidelines of the Mining Indaba in February 2018.
This is where Mashatile made the famous speech on “managing the transition”, which he said meant taking state power from Zuma and handing it to Ramaphosa.
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