The latest tussle between Fikile Mbalula and ANC veteran Mavuso Msimang is not the first time the firebrand secretary-general has taken on his seniors — and then backtracked.
His infamous 2009 open letter to former president Thabo Mbeki is legendary — not least because it epitomises Mbalula’s character and penchant for bombastic, spiteful bluster.
Back in 2008, Mbalula was among those who agitated for Mbeki’s recall at a tense national executive committee (NEC) meeting. A year on, with the ascent of Jacob Zuma, he described the former statesman as “manipulative” and “conniving”, and as having allowed the ANC to “stumble on the edge of the abyss”.
Almost a decade and a half later, on December 7, Mbalula expressed regret over the Mbeki recall, describing the move as “reckless” and “wrong”.
From describing Mbeki as “intoxicated with power” in 2009 to admitting that the ANC recalled him for no good reason, Mbalula’s fondness for going with the political flow — and benefiting from it — has become legendary.
He has, for example, backtracked after an attack on public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan. Then there’s his latest gaffe, in response to the now-reversed resignation of Msimang.
After receiving Msimang’s letter of resignation, he accused the veteran of having been “bribed” by businessman-turned-politician Roger Jardine to join his new political movement. Msimang denied this and described Mbalula as an “embarrassment”.
Again, Mbalula did an about-turn, issuing a public apology for his statement.
Given that he occupies a crucial post in the party, Mbalula’s linguistic blundering is beginning to cause some irritation. As ANC secretary-general, he is effectively the party’s voice and second only to its president. The CEO, in other words, of the organisation.
Historically, that position has been occupied by intellectual heavyweights — think Walter Sisulu, Oliver Tambo, Duma Nokwe and, more recently, Cyril Ramaphosa, Kgalema Motlanthe and Gwede Mantashe.
What’s especially problematic now, however, is that, with an aloof president like Ramaphosa, the organisation’s character takes on the persona of the secretary-general. And on that count, Mbalula is doing it no favours.
Given that he occupies a crucial post in the party, his linguistic blundering is beginning to cause some irritation
Mbalula’s surprise election in December last year is anomalous and, analysts say, a sign of the broader degeneration of Africa’s oldest liberation movement.
That decline began with the ascent of former Free State premier Ace Magashule to the post. On his watch, the ANC’s organisational decline accelerated.
The question inside and outside the party is whether Mbalula can turn things around in time for the crucial 2024 election and cement a renewal agenda.
There are doubts, not over his intent, but his ability.
“Some of the things he says cause irritation. He still thinks he is the secretary of the ANC Youth League. What he needs to do is rise to the occasion as secretary-general of the ANC and not get hypnotised by the microphones and cameras in front of him,” says an NEC member, speaking to the FM on condition of anonymity.
“The SG should speak only on strategic issues, but he is all over the place. The broader impact is that it reduces the gravitas of that office.”
Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflections director Susan Booysen says Mbalula is heavy on bluster and sideswipes but light on depth and intellectual engagement.
“He has the ability to hit out at opponents and defend the ANC in ways that draw headlines, but he doesn’t have the ability to materially change anything and improve perceptions,” she tells the FM.
Another NEC member says Mbalula has a penchant for jumping into the swamp with the likes of the EFF’s Julius Malema, reacting to provocation from his former youth league protégé.
“He throws himself in the mud, which is completely unnecessary when dealing with an uncouth figure like Julius,” the leader says.
Numerous attempts to obtain comment from Mbalula for this piece were unsuccessful.
While Luthuli House insiders acknowledge that Mbalula has to be restrained from his public outbursts, they have credited him with doing a lot to stabilise the ANC internally. For instance, he led the process to ensure the youth league, women’s league and veterans league held elective conferences in the first six months of his tenure — this after the three offshoots had been crippled by internal instability for years.
He also beefed up operations at Luthuli House, says another insider, appointing a general manager, Patrick Flusk. And he surrounded himself with strong thinkers such as former Gauteng premier David Makhura, who heads political education, and former KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) secretary Mdumiseni Ntuli, who is now the head of organising.
Ntuli was among those who ran for the post of secretary-general but lost to Mbalula.
“The NEC is also better organised under him,” says another leader who sits on the structure. “The way issues and documents are processed is much stronger [than under Magashule] and it helps the leadership to focus on coming up with solutions ... His team is doing a much better job. In fact, he has done more in the past year than Magashule did before his suspension.”
Mbalula is credited with the successful running of the ANC’s manifesto review process and the Letsema listening campaign, which involved party leaders traversing the country to listen to community complaints about governance. This, say insiders, provided key contact with the electorate ahead of what is expected to be a bruising election campaign in 2024.
Still, given his missteps, the NEC has been pushing for Mbalula to leave more of the communicating to the party spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri.
“That is something we are trying to manage, for us the image and brand of the organisation is key and we must ensure that whoever speaks on behalf of the brand must protect and not damage it,” a senior leader says.
Independent political analyst Ralph Mathekga agrees, saying Mbalula only seems to care about trending on social media — there is no deep thought or strategy to his outbursts.
“But you must remember that he is part of a rising generation of ANC leaders who are intellectually barren, they are all about spectacle and ANC gigs instead of positively contributing to society and the organisation,” he says.
Mathekga says this generation of leaders is in the ascent as older leaders make way. Unfortunately, he adds, the ANC over the past two decades did not emphasise excellence when drawing in future leaders. The likes of Mbalula and former finance minister Malusi Gigaba are the result of that.
That said, there are those in the wings who could have done a better job. He cites former KZN chair Sihle Zikalala as one such leader, or Makhura.
[Mbalula] is part of a rising generation of ANC leaders who are intellectually barren, they are all about spectacle and ANC gigs instead of positively contributing to society and the organisation
— Ralph Mathekga
The ANC is in dire need of stronger leaders in its headquarters given the wider global challenges — from the party’s response to the wars in Ukraine and Gaza to the careful tiptoeing required in navigating an increasingly multipolar world.
“What you want now is a Joe Slovo,” Mathekga says, referring to the former SACP general secretary. “[Someone] who has the intellectual nous to navigate these multiple crises, not someone only after hits on social media and someone who spends most of their time criticising ANC members.”
In the final analysis, Mbalula appears to be more of an entertainer than a strategist, he adds.
In 2012, the ANC’s former policy tsar Joel Netshitenzhe delivered the OR Tambo lecture in which he spelt out the characteristics required of ANC leaders, using Tambo as a reference point.
“Oliver Tambo commanded reverence and awe, not because he demanded respect or instilled fear. He simply towered above the rest: as an organiser, an accomplished intellect, a master strategist and tactician, a source of inspiration, a force of example and a paragon of transformative virtue and revolutionary ethics,” Nsthitenzhe said.
“A defective leadership not only holds back the attainment of national objectives. It also presents a difficult conundrum for the movement in that, to rationalise its bad leadership choices, the ANC has to lower itself to embrace those defects of the leaders it has chosen, as its own defects.
“Steadily, these defects of individual leaders become, by default, the collective property of the organisation, its own blind spots and its subliminal attributes in the public imagination.”
The ANC, says Mathekga, has clearly fallen far from the ideal leadership epitomised by the likes of Tambo — and it is set to face the consequences.
The likes of Mbalula and his generation are shaping the character of the new ANC. Given his ambition to succeed Ramaphosa, this is unlikely to change.
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