By Marcus Moloko
History was made at the ANC National General Council in Boksburg this week – not in policy, not in speeches, but in the seating plan.
Business mogul Patrice Motsepe, a man so influential he probably has a chair reserved in every boardroom in Africa, was standing chatting to a delegate as the session got going.
As proceedings began, ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula could be heard calling for quiet so the programme could continue. Then, armed with nothing but his booming voice and trademark confidence, Mbalula spotted Motsepe.
With the authority of a school principal catching a learner out of uniform, he boomed: “Mr Motsepe, please sit down!” drawing laughter from the room.
It was a small, light-hearted moment between colleagues, but it landed just hours after EFF leader Julius Malema’s Thursday press briefing, where he claimed Mbalula would be the next ANC president.
“Mr Motsepe, please sit down!”
The words echoed through the hall. Delegates spotted the humour and, yes, Motsepe, the man who could buy a chair factory if he wanted, obeyed the command. The simple comic moment, although innocent, followed Malema’s claim.
No, there is no link, although in an effort to slightly deviate from serious politics, if we imagined Malema’s comment and attempted to link it to this one action, we would fill stadiums.
Malema said, “Fikile Mbalula is going to be president of the ANC if there is no serious intervention made to stop him. I warned you about this… if they allow him to do what he’s doing, he’s going to lead them.”
Malema even used a marathon analogy.
“If it was a marathon, Mbalula is ahead. Paul [Mashatile] is trying to catch up… I don’t know how he will get there.”
And suddenly, the “sit down” moment could be seen as political prophecy.
If Mbalula could make Patrice Motsepe sit, what else could he do? Make Mashatile kneel? Convince Eskom to keep the lights on?
Perhaps even make politicians stop talking over each other?
The video of Mbalula telling Motsepe to sit down became a running joke in political circles.
It was proof that even in the serious world of politics, humour lurks in the smallest moments.
Delegates could well be thinking: “If Mbalula can make Motsepe sit, imagine what he’ll do when he’s president.”
Malema might have meant it as a warning, but the rest of us took it as comedy gold, because sometimes, politics is best understood not through policy documents or marathon speeches, but through the sheer hilarity of watching a billionaire sit down when commanded to do so.
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