Kubayi to discuss her rumoured ANC deputy president ambitions ‘when time is right’
ANC national working committee (NWC) member Mmamoloko Kubayi has downplayed her rumoured ambitions of contesting the party’s deputy presidency position in the 2027 elective conference, saying she will announce her position “at the right time”.
In an interview with the Mail & Guardian, Kubayi said she would, as in the run-up to the previous elective conference in 2022, wait for the processes of the ANC “as a disciplined cadre of the movement to be opened”.
In 2022, Kubayi was endorsed by her branch in Protea South, Soweto, to run for ANC deputy president, but failed to meet the nomination threshold. She said she had been a victim of the party’s new electoral system which members were not yet accustomed to.
In March this year, she was replaced as the ANC’s economic transformation committee chair by Zuko Glodlimpi.
According to sources close to her camp, Kubayi had asked to be removed from the position since last year because she was overwhelmed with her work as justice minister, in addition to serving in the NWC and national executive committee.
Kubayi has been accused of using her position as justice minister to push for ANC deputy president Paul Mashatile to not contest in 2027.
Two weeks ago screenshots of WhatsApp messages were circulated on social media suggesting that Kubayi, Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni and President Cyril Ramaphosa were applying pressure to a senior National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to charge Mashatile with perjury after a case was opened against him by a group of disgruntled ANC members in North West.
In 2023, five ANC members approached the North West high court in a bid to declare the provincial conference and the party’s elected provincial executive committee (PEC) to be declared unlawful claiming that Mashatile, when he was acting secretary general, had allegedly made up an NEC resolution justifying the reappointment of the interim provincial committee.
They wanted all decisions taken at the conference to be declared unlawful and dissolved by the ANC, and for a new interim provincial committee appointed to prepare for another conference to elect a new PEC.
Kubayi and Ntshavheni are seen as Ramaphosa’s trusted allies in the ANC and this they would use to rise to the party’s top seven leadership positions.
Kubayi has since opened a case of fraud, and impersonation at the Brooklyn police station in Pretoria over the WhatsApp messages.
“I do believe these are fake, somebody reacted to this obviously to try and deal with my credibility. I’ve heard people say they have done work to try and find dirt on me and they’ve never found it,” she told the M&G.
“I take this as bullying, intimidation by those who are threatened by me and I don’t know why they are threatened by me, because no one can just create something like this for no reason.”
She said she had never interfered with the work of the NPA and believed the institution must be allowed to operate without interference.
“I’m not going to tolerate it [smears]. I’m not just some flower pot that is sitting somewhere,” she said. “What I will not accept is where people go out to impute my integrity. I take serious offence. I’m a professional, my integrity means a lot and I have worked hard to be where I am.
Kubayi said she had left all her previous portfolios without scandal.
“I continue to develop myself, I continue to work hard where I’m given responsibilities. When people can’t find fault, they go and create one and I do believe that this is what they have done this time.”
Kubayi was also recently touted to lead the NEC’s deployees in Limpopo, a move that has been rejected by some ANC members in the province.
A senior ANC source in Limpopo told the M&G that given that some people were lobbying for the party’s second deputy secretary general, Maropene Ramokgopa, to take over as the next deputy president, Kubayi’s deployment in the province would have been problematic.
They said those in Ramokgopa’s faction were using tribalism to argue against Kubayi’s deployed in the province.
“They claimed that there are already too many Vendas and Tsongas in high positions in the province and they made the reference to Phophi [Ramathuba, the Limpopo premier]. They are saying they need a Sepedi speaking person,” the source said.
“The very same people saying Mmamoloko is Tsonga are supporting the deputy president. Is Paul not moTsonga? What is the difference between Paul and Mmamoloko, they are both in Gauteng, one in Alex, one in Soweto and they are both Tsongas.
“The tribalistic issues have always been there in Limpopo and have always been used by anyone who is losing.”