A political analyst suspects that the candidate, Mr. Patrice Motsepe, was afraid of the stick and withdrew from the race to lead the ANC.
A political analyst from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Mr. Zakhele Ndlovu, said that he does not believe that the people running Motsepe’s campaign to lead the ANC just started the campaign without ever saying that he is seeking the position.
Ndlovu was commenting after Motsepe dispelled rumors that he was vying for the position of ANC leader. Motsepe said he did not know anything about the campaign to be elected to lead the ANC in next year’s conference. He said this while speaking to the shareholders of his company African Rainbow Minerals.
A website promoting Motsepe called PM27 We agreed was recently launched. In the past, t-shirts promoting Motsepe’s campaign have also appeared. The emergence of Motsepe’s campaign did not go down well with the ANC leadership who complained that he would disrupt the local government election campaign.
ANC members are still not allowed to talk about the power struggle.
Motsepe said he knew nothing about the campaign.
“I don’t know where the people running this campaign are getting the money from. I know that the rumors will continue. The aim is to tarnish my name. They intend to portray me as someone who does not respect the principles of the ANC. They want me to appear as someone who does not care about poor people.”
But the analyst, Ndlovu, said that Motsepe may have changed his mind by entering the race to lead the ANC.
“If I look at this carefully, they wouldn’t have started it when he didn’t show that he wanted the position. Maybe he realized that this thing won’t work, he saw that he would be insulted. Maybe that’s what made him back down.”
Ndlovu said Motsepe’s campaign would have been heavily supported by those who support President Cyril Ramaphosa.
“Businessmen would trust Motsepe, which is what South Africa needs. The truth is that businessmen do not trust Mashatile (Vice President, Mr. Paul).”
Ndlovu said those who support Ramaphosa will have to look for someone else to attack, saying that it will not be easy to find someone else to attack because of the lack of reliable leaders in the ANC.
“In the past (Ramaphosa’s supporters), they nominated the Speaker of Parliament (Mrs Thoko Didiza). They should push for her now. She is the only one who I think can be supported by the people and businessmen who support Ramaphosa. And it would be easy to run her campaign as there are always complaints that the ANC has never had a female leader.”