There have been conflicting views on the move by the outgoing deputy president of the African National Congress (ANC), David Mabuza.
In what some have called a “surprise move”, Mabuza declined his nomination for a second term as the deputy president of the ANC.
Some analysts say it was a good strategy on his part, while others say he was just avoiding embarrassing himself when he lost his bid for a second term.
Political analyst Professor Lesiba Teffo questioned whether it was a good move on his part. “I think he has done extremely well for himself. I didn’t see it coming that in 2017 he could become the deputy president. He says to me today, that I’m not available for any position, but he goes back home with a package of a deputy president that he will be with for the next 20 or 50 years. He’s fairly young, why wouldn’t you do that? I mean that is a retirement package that is wonderful,” says Teffo.
VIDEO: Conflicting views as deputy president of the ANC, David Mabuza declines nomination:
Mabuza’s political history
Known as the “Cat”, Mabuza spent most of his political life in Mpumalanga. Rising through the ranks of the ANC, until he became the Provincial Chairperson of the party.
He left his position in 2017 during the 54th National Conference of the ANC to take up his position as the party’s Deputy President. Now, he has pulled out, declining the nomination.
Political analyst Sandile Swana says Mabuza saw that he had no prospect of winning this time around.
“Today he’s a nonentity in his own home-based and the artificial branches that he had created in Mpumalanga have all been cut down. If you look at the number of delegates from Mpumalanga, it has been trimmed. The reason for that in my judgment is that the artificial branches that Mabuza had created to boost his political standing to marshall those people whom he was taking care of on a daily basis to achieve his political objectives and unfortunately made a mistake on the chess board and disconnected himself.”
