Riyaz Patel
ANC Secretary General Ace Magashule has dismissed reports of a plot to oust President Cyril Ramaphosa, saying it’s an attempt to sow divisions within the ruling party.
The Citizen reported Monday that Magashule, along with erstwhile supporters of the president, were planning to unseat Ramaphosa.
A campaign to oust the ANC president is being led by the party’s secretary-general, and includes erstwhile supporters, the Gauteng daily reported.
“A high-level campaign is under way within the ANC to discredit President Cyril Ramaphosa and oust him from power by using his so-called neoliberal policy as an excuse,” the report said.
“The Premier League, a loose alliance of former premiers from the Free State, Mpumalanga and North West, and a small group from Gauteng, was being revived to spread an anti-Ramaphosa narrative ahead of next year’s national policy conference,” the report added.
But Magashule said the unity of the ANC’s top six was sacrosanct.
“We have confidence in the entire leadership of the ANC and in the president because the president, like all of us, was elected and the president is part of us. Don’t isolate the president and put the president there and put us here.”
The Citizen reported further that a source with intimate knowledge of the situation claimed even some of Ramaphosa’s one-time Nasrec allies – David Mabuza and Lindiwe Sisulu – as being part of the plot.
Magashule said the relationship between the top six and the president was healthy.
“We don’t know what the papers are talking about because the relationship between the president of the ANC and the rest of the top six… we never have issues.”
