Problems are mounting for Gauteng ANC chair Panyaza Lesufi.
It is difficult not to sympathise with the former spokesperson-turned MEC-turned premier. He has been the face of a desperate push by the ANC in Gauteng to forestall electoral calamity for the party in the province, which has at times been, well, cringeworthy.
Things have become decidedly worse for him and his province in the past week.
For starters, his slim victory over provincial executive committee (PEC) member and housing MEC Lebogang Maile at the ANC’s provincial conference may come back to haunt him. A group of ANC members mounted a successful legal challenge to a messy conference held in May last year to elect leadership for the province’s largest region, Ekurhuleni.
The high court judgment setting aside the conference and all decisions taken there could affect the ANC Gauteng provincial conference held two months later, as the Ekurhuleni delegation to that elective meeting would have formed the bulk of the delegates. This could mean a re-run of the provincial conference could be on the cards — a serious threat to Lesufi, who beat Maile by just 32 votes.
This means Lesufi’s grip on the province could slip even further. Though he won the position of chair, most of the PEC members are aligned to Maile.
Another headache Lesufi revealed this week is that his Nas iSpani (or Here is a Job) programme launched on Youth Day attracted 1.2-million applicants — to fill just 8,000 posts. Lesufi created huge expectations through the programme that his administration would be absorbing unemployed young people into decent, full-time jobs.
Except these jobs are simply filling provincial government vacancies — those that are funded.
It is not the first time the Gauteng government has launched a youth employment drive. Lesufi’s predecessor, David Makhura, in 2014 launched the Tshepo 500,000 programme, aimed at youth training and employment, which at the time was dubbed a failure by opposition parties.
Lesufi’s spokesperson Sizwe Pamla tells the FM that the sheer number of applicants for the 8,000 jobs became a “nightmare”, so what started out as filling government posts has now morphed into the creation of a database of the unemployed. The provincial government would now require all companies tendering with the province to create a particular number of jobs and then be allocated names from that database. Sadly, the majority of those who applied for these posts are not educated or skilled, he says.
The number of applications for the posts speaks to the tragedy behind youth unemployment. Now Lesufi is promising to sign 50,000 work contracts with young people at the Orlando Stadium next month. Pamla says these will include the crime wardens launched by Lesufi earlier this year, those who are undergoing solar panel installation training (another initiative launched by the province) as well as those set to fill provincial government posts.
Lesufi created huge expectations through the programme that his administration would be absorbing unemployed young people into decent, full-time jobs
Cynically, Lesufi’s populism smacks of electioneering — even though any attempt to put young people in gainful employment should be welcomed.
Makhura’s jobs drive did little to reverse the ANC’s electoral decline after it was launched in 2014. In successive local and national elections, the party’s performance dipped further.
Another uphill battle Lesufi is set to face is a fresh threat to his tie-ups with the EFF in Gauteng metros and municipalities.
ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula over the weekend said clearly that the party needs to re-examine its working relationship with Julius Malema’s EFF in the province. This is the first sign from the party’s national leadership that the ANC in Gauteng’s “test run” for a potential tie-up with the EFF is not working.
It is this arrangement that has kept the party within the corridors of power in the municipalities across the province and has kept the DA out. In Joburg, ANC chair Dada Morero is the MMC for finance but is practically running things, given the abilities of incumbent mayor Kabelo Gwamanda.
Keeping the DA out and key ANC leaders in crucial posts in councils, at least to the ANC Gauteng leadership, are two key factors that will help the party to retain the province in next year’s national and provincial election. At least in theory.
The EFF has other ideas. It was no accident that it agreed to an ANC tie-up but on condition that a smaller party take up the mayoral seat. In this way, the governing party does not have outright control and smaller parties in power are keenly aware that their place in the sun is due to the EFF’s generous manoeuvring. Malema is well schooled in ANC politics and would no doubt be aware of one of the key tactics the party used in KwaZulu-Natal in the early 2000s to weaken the IFP: it entered into coalitions with it. This appears to be playing out now in the coalitions between the ANC and EFF in Gauteng, according to one ANC Ekurhuleni leader in a letter to Mbalula.
“Could it be that we are working with a wolf in sheep’s clothing and that the current tactic may actually work against our electoral fortunes?” acting regional chair Jongizizwe Dlabathi wrote. Mbalula appeared convinced of this argument when he spoke at a youth league event this weekend.
“We must review that marriage and we’ll table it in the ANC ... we’ll look at what do we stand to benefit from this. Politically, we are being assaulted here and that is what is important … They want us down, comrades, they want us below 50%. They are assisted by these ones [EFF],” TimesLive quoted him as saying.
Lesufi’s Gauteng appears to be sinking. Can he turn the tide?
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