Analysis: How Mabuza’s 2017 Nasrec gamble sealed his fate

By Simon  Nare

Former deputy president David Mabuza, nicknamed ‘The Cat’ for his nimble-fingered political moves, faced a key moment at the 2017 ANC conference in Nasrec, Johannesburg, when he switched sides at the last minute, abandoning the Premier League to support President Cyril Ramaphosa.

What was once seen as a clever move by a shrewd politician soon became a turning point that made him an adversary and pushed him into relative obscurity.

To this day, former ANC president Jacob Zuma never forgave Mabuza for betraying him by rejecting his leadership wishes at the conference.

Once a dominant force in Mpumalanga politics, Mabuza faded into the shadows after quietly leaving the Union Buildings, after realising that the man he had helped install at the 2017 Nasrec conference, at great personal cost, no longer had use for him.

That, many agree, was the sad story of how Mabuza betrayed a powerful