Daily Maverick
Dailymaverick logo

South Africa

South Africa

ANC’s new committee chairs — more evidence the party just does not get it

ANC’s new committee chairs — more evidence the party just does not get it
Stephen Grootes
By Stephen Grootes
5 Mar 2025
Facebook
17
The appointment of people such as Faith Muthambi and Small Business Development Minister Stella Ndabeni to new positions of power in the ANC may well reveal the party still has not got the message. It may well pay a stiff price for ignoring the fact that voters want clean and efficient governance.

On Tuesday evening, the ANC formally confirmed much of the reporting on the changes to its national executive sub-committees.

While these committees do not play much of a role in the day-to-day politics of the ANC, they are often vital during conferences and can display the balance of power through proxy fights about policy.

In the past, disputes that could change our economic trajectory, such as the nationalisation of mines or expropriation without compensation, have been settled in the economic transformation committee, while other policies, such as the NHI, have first appeared in these committees.

This means that the person who chairs them matters. As has often been stated, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana was able to prevent some proposals from becoming ANC policy through his chairing of the economic transformation committee for many years.

This also shows that these appointments can sometimes reveal the relative positions of groups within the ANC.

Baffling choices


In this case, some of the choices appear baffling.

For example, Faith Muthambi is now the chair of the ANC’s legal and constitutional affairs committee.

Muthambi is more responsible than almost anyone for the sorry state of the SABC at present. While communications minister, Muthambi insisted on appointing Hlaudi Motsoeneng as the broadcaster’s chief operations officer.

Appointing her chair of such a committee may mean that the ANC’s current leadership has forgotten how she simply lied about the conclusions of a previous ANC committee.

In 2015, at the ANC’s national general council at Gallagher Estate, the party’s communications committee resolved that South Africa would use encrypted digital terrestrial television.

She issued a statement claiming the committee did no such thing. This was a lie.

Read more: Digital terrestrial TV: The ANC has lost faith in Muthambi

Now, a person who has lied about the conclusions of an ANC committee is chairing one.

Stella Ndabeni


It is also difficult to understand the choice of Small Business Development Minister Stella Ndabeni (formerly Ndabeni-Abrahams) as the new chair of the ANC’s local government intervention team.

There can be no doubt that local government should be the focus of the ANC at this moment. It is not just that local elections are due relatively soon, but also that there are a huge number of problems to resolve.

Make no mistake, many of the problems in local government are the fault of ANC leaders. It is their decisions that have led directly to the problems places like Johannesburg, Mangaung and Ethekwini have now.

To manage this process requires very precise politics – each council has its own dynamics and each needs its own intervention.

Ndabeni has been almost absent at Small Business Development.

There appears to be no programme, idea or suggestion from her that will help develop smaller firms.

It might appear that all she can do is to hand out government money. Certainly, there is no evidence of her arguing in favour of small business. She gives no impression that she cares for their plight.

She might have revealed her own ineptitude when she said recently in an interview with Newzroom Afrika that her “department only turned 10 this year. Therefore we are still in the building or the foundational phase.”

As a result, she may be better remembered both for breaking lockdown regulations by having lunch with Mduduzi Manana (who beat up a woman in a parking lot) and for blocking an SABC camera covering an ANC rally in 2019. 

Thembi Simelane


The choice of deputy chair of the ANC’s local government intervention team is also controversial.

Thembi Simelane was recently shown by Daily Maverick and News 24 to have lived way beyond her stated means when Mayor of Polokwane.

As a result, President Cyril Ramaphosa removed her from the position of Justice minister and appointed her as Minister of Human Settlements. She was, until this latest committee chair reshuffle, also the chair of the Legislature and Governance Committee (although the ANC website refers to her as “T. Nkadimeng” – her previous married name). Now, she appears to have been demoted.

Some sensible changes

Some changes do make sense. Andries Nel (a former deputy justice minister among other posts) appears to be a suitably neutral choice to chair the party’s national disciplinary committee of appeal.

Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma may feel she deserves to chair the education, health, science and technology committee, because of her vast experience. 

But it is not clear what kind of role Deputy DTIC Minister Zuko Godlimpi will play as the new chair of the economic transformation committee.

While Godlimpi did have a brief stint as acting spokesperson for the ANC (always an incredibly demanding job), he is still in his early 30s. While this should not be an issue, in our political culture, and in particular the culture of the ANC, age does matter.

As a result, it is difficult to say if he will be able to chair some of the contentious debates that will almost certainly come the way of his committee.

It is worth noting that the international relations committee, which would presumably forge policy towards both the US and the Gaza/Israel situation, also has a significant change.

Deputy ANC secretary-general Nomvula Mokonyane remains its chair, while Supra Mahumapelo is the deputy. But Obed Bapela, who was its deputy chair for many years, is gone.

He appears to be paying the price for completely contradicting ANC policy and visiting Morocco. The ANC’s long-stated view has been that Morocco has colonised the Sahrawi people in Western Sahara, and thus Bapela’s claim to represent the party in Morocco was clearly a lie.

There has still been no public explanation for his actions, which would make it rational to ask if he was compensated by Morocco in some way for doing this.

These committees are about to become more important – the ANC is due to have another national general council this year. 

The appointments might well be the first indication of how the balance of power in the party is shifting, and thus how these dynamics will play out during its elective conference to choose Ramaphosa’s successor in 2027. DM

Categories:

Tags: