ANALYSIS: ANC’s Post-SONA inner landscape — not easier, not simpler By Stephen Grootes StephenGrootes
There is no more consequential political relationship at the moment in South Africa than the one between President Cyril Ramaphosa and ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule. They symbolise near-polar factions within the ANC, to a point where is difficult to believe they officially belong to the same party. And yet, both men hardly ever speak publicly about this. Ramaphosa has not done any interviews for some time, while Magashule appears to have chosen to say to the media as little as possible.
And yet, for reasons of his own, Magashule opted instead to come out and speak. Perhaps he felt that it was important for him to be seen as supporting Ramaphosa — perhaps there has been some sort of agreement that everyone involved in this complicated set of factions would behave themselves for the night.
This is strong stuff. To take the words at face value would be to believe that nowhere in the history of humanity has there been a better political speech. Of course, the recent history of the relationship between Magashule and Ramaphosa suggests a strong dose of cynicism is necessary. While it seems unlikely that Magashule’s interpretation of the Nasrec resolutions has suddenly been altered, these comments are still important. It has appeared in recent months that Ramaphosa’s opponents, which include Magashule, were planning to use his alleged non-compliance with those resolutions as a way of damaging him at the ANC’s National General Council 2020.
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