He said what is needed now is the creation of an “enabling environment” in the ANC that can relieve comrades from intimidation, fear, gate-keeping and slate politics because that is what in fact robs the ANC of good leaders.
Mpumalanga ANC contender Peter Nyoni believes in the politics of vision and not just having a large number of followers towards an elective conference.
He said numbers do not bring any change in our society but ideas “and not just ideas but ideas based on principles bring change” in our society.
He said it always happened that a leader would be elevated to power by numbers and when the people realised they had put somebody with no vision they got disappointed and stopped following that leader.
Nyoni was speaking with journalist Zingisa Chirwa on her Rise FM show on Tuesday evening this week. He wants to be the chairman of the ANC in Mpumalanga.
“As a leader you have to understand why you are in a particular space,” Nyoni who boasts 30-years of experience in politics told Zingisa.
“And leadership again is the capacity to influence people through inspiration which is generated by passion, motivated by vision, produced by conviction and ignited by a purpose.
“The purpose of being there,” he said.
“And based on that purpose you have to develop a strong conviction, something that will say to you, ‘this which I believe in I am prepared to die for’,” said Nyoni.
Peter Nyoni.
Nyoni said he had been approached by quarters of some branches in the eHlanzeni region to come fill the vacant position left by former provincial leader DD Mabuza when he got elected the deputy president on 18 December 2017.
He is amongst a large number of contestants who want the same seat, like Charles Makola and David Dube who are former provincial deputy chairmen in Mabuza’s first term (Makola) and second term (Dube), Mbombela speaker Mandla Msibi and current secretary Mandla Ndlovu, these are just some of those gunning for the Mpumalanga ANC’s top job.
Nyoni said when he led the Save ANC Mpumalanga campaign in 2015 he got suspended as a member of the party’s provincial executive committee and could not make it into it again when an elective congress was held later that year.
“I’m now an ordinary member of the ANC,” he said.
“It was a campaign that was meant to ensure that we deal with disunity in the ANC, gate-keeping which is so rife and slate politics which for a very long time has deprived effective leadership in the ANC. I was actually challenging those things,” he said.
His Save ANC Mpumalanga grouping was opposed to Mabuza returning to be the chairman of the ANC for a third term, calling him a “Nkurunziza of Mpumalanga” – a label that was likening him to Burundi’s President Pierre Nkurunziza whose campaign for a third term in office caused riots and widespread violence in that country.
Nyoni said leaders do not think about “what will happen to me if I do this but what will happen to the organisation if I don’t do this”.
“I need my brain because my brain is my primary tool that will enable me to think and no one must endeavour to think for me and say this is a collective decision when in fact it is a one man’s decision and that is what we are totally against. Let all of us effectively participate in the life of our organisation,” he said.
“We must be allowed the space to contribute meaningfully because you must understand that our organisation has deteriorated a lot. The trust account is now depleted, deposit that trust into it,” Nyoni said.
A provincial general council that will elect Mabuza’s successor and then fill the deputy chairperson position as well as filling another position in the PEC will be held on 15 September 2018.
With just few a days to go, the ANC’s 54th congress will obviously be the toughest yet.
ANC regional leaders in the Mpumalanga province are in a bid to rescue presidential contender Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma’s sinking campaign ship as five of the nine ANC provinces have declared support for Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Dlamini-Zuma has since been nominated by KZN, North West and Free State, with Mpumalanga nominating Unity.
On Thursday last week (8 Dec), Nkangala ANC chairman Speedy Mashilo convened what they say was a ‘caucus’ – attended by the region’s delegates – and inviting Bohlabela leader Gillion Mashego, Gert Sibande’s Muzi Chirwa and eHlanzeni’s Ngrayi Ngwenya.
Sources who attended this meeting in KwaMhlanga later on the day said it was chaired by Mashilo – and that both Mashego and Chirwa spoke and all told the delegates that they support Dlamini-Zuma.
Ngwenya didn’t come to the meeting but did send an apology, sources told the 013NEWS reporter.
Nkangala delegates were assured by Mashilo, Mashego and Chirwa that all is well with the NDZ ship, amidst Limpopo, Gauteng and the three cape provinces nominating Ramaphosa as President Jacob Zuma’s successor.
The four Mpumalanga regional leaders want provincial leader DD Mabuza to leave the province and go serve as the deputy president of the ANC.
“The caucus was meant to send a message that delegates should know that we support NDZ and that this thing of Unity should not worry them,” a delegate who attended the KwaMhlanga caucus said on Friday morning.
“They did say that we should not go all over the place pronouncing people, but we should know that we are NDZ,” the source said, adding that of the over 170 Nkangala delegates, 147 came to the Mashilo meeting and agreed to support NDZ.
“Chirwa and Mashego spoke and reaffirmed our support for comrade Nkosazana,” the source told the reporter.
Dlamini-Zuma was during BGMs nominated by only 123 of the total Mpumalanga branches, Ramaphosa only 117 and Mabuza’s Unity receiving 223 branch nomination votes.
The regional leaders want Mabuza’s Unity delegates turned into NDZ votes in conference in order to allow him to be the deputy president.
Mashilo confirmed convening the meeting and said his other counterparts were invited to demonstrate to delegates the support of his region for NDZ.
“Let me not speak for the province, I’m not allowed to speak on its behalf,” Mashilo said when the reporter asked him whether as Mpumalanga they support NDZ, “but as Nkangala yes we support NDZ,” he said over the phone.
She needed the support of KZN as the biggest ANC province and Mpumalanga but Limpopo and Gauteng are just some of the more dangerous provinces for her to emerge.
ANC presidential contender Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma is facing a tough journey as more and more branches come out to declare support for Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa.
She lost Gauteng and Limpopo, which both will send more than 1000 delegates combined, as well as Eastern Cape, the third largest ANC province, which will send over 640 delegates to the 54th national congress in Johannesburg.
Limpopo is the ANC’s fourth biggest province, allocated 643 delegates and Gauteng sixth – with 508 delegates.
A week ago Mpumalanga leader DD Mabuza pronounced Unity – snubbing both camps – and leaving Dlamini- Zuma with only North West, Free State and KZN.
The three cape provinces – Northern, Western and Eastern Cape – nominated Ramaphosa as well as Gauteng and Limpopo, giving him over 1 800 branches against Dlamini-Zuma’s 1 300.
“We want the nomination process to be re-run because 35 branches lodged disputes and there was no report-back,” Malomane said.
On Friday, the ANC in Mpumalanga pronounced Unity for all the positions in the top 6 after this particular candidate received 223 nominations for the position of president against Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa’s 117 and Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma’s 123.
Though Dlamini-Zuma was announced as the winner for the nomination of president for her narrow defeat of Ramaphosa, provincial leader DD Mabuza said the province’s stance is Unity over any other contestant.
“Unity has won,” he said after the provincial general council had concluded at the Mbombela stadium on Friday evening.
Mandla Ndlovu, the ANC secretary, said it was fine if Phosa is taking them to court.
“It’s up to them. They can go to court and we’ll defend,” he said.
He was previously that leader who would take the mic and lambaste all of President Jacob Zuma’s critics and was thought to be a member of the so-called Premier League but seems he has moved away from all of that.
Mpumalanga ANC chairman DD Mabuza is not backing down on his campaign for Unity and is prepared to “forge ahead” even if this doesn’t make him the deputy president.
Mabuza on Friday disappointed supporters of Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa and Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma who had hoped he would endorse their candidates for the fiercely contested position of ANC president, especially the NDZ camp that features him as the deputy president.
Than endorsing people, Mabuza chose to pronounce Unity as the presidential candidate who must win and lead the ANC after December 2017.
“We are talking about the aspiration of our people here, not individuals,” he told journalists after the Mpumalanga PGC had concluded.
The outcomes showed of the 463 Mpumalanga branches, only 123 nominated Dlamini-Zuma, 117 Ramaphosa and 223 Unity.
Dlamini-Zuma had to be announced as the winner after electoral officials refused to recognise votes cast as Unity, saying Unity was not a person and the 223 votes were therefore counted as abstentions.
Mabuza pronounced he supported Unity than one of the two contestants who needed his determining province to emerge in December.
“You have elevated the debate into something else as if the president of the ANC is God. Its not. The ANC is owned by its own members, not leadership,” Mabuza said to journalists at the Mbombela stadium.
“Leadership is just there to guide the movement but is not God. So as members of the ANC we are going to guard, jealously, this movement,” he said.
Mabuza wants the ANC to discuss and come out with a person suitable to lead it as opposed to leaders contesting each other through slates, which is cause for the gradual death of the ANC.
He wants this candidate to be elected from the floor in congress than being pre-determined by slates.
He said this whole thing that he is pushing is not himself “but about the aspirations of the people”.
“I was never born to be a Premier or chairperson, I’m here solely because of the will of the people and tomorrow there will be someone else. There was someone before me and there was someone before that someone, so individuals will come and go but the aspiration of the people remain,” Mabuza said.
“So [if I’m not elected] I’m going to join the rank and file and move with them and I’m not going to be unhappy with that. At any given time the ANC must be led and we will follow. I was not born to lead all the time and I’m not going to fight for any position. It’s members of the ANC who will elect me and I’ll accept. I’m saying let’s find consensus. As a province we are peculiar, we have preached unity, still standing on those words today,” he said.
Mabuza addressed the PGC on Friday and said there will always be different opinions but the experience that the ANC got during the struggle will help it “resolve whatever differences that we have in order to achieve unity and make us a very formidable force towards the attainment of our strategic objectives”.
“As I conclude I want to reiterate that for us as Mpumalanga the ANC comes first and no one, no individual is bigger than the ANC. We must emerge with a strong and united ANC irrespective of the conference outcomes. We should elect a leadership collective, brave enough to make tough decisions to better the lives of our people. For those who will emerge as elected leadership should be no adoption of a triumphalist posture at the expense of the broader organisational goals. We cannot afford any split from our ranks. This is not about individuals but about the future of our country and generations and generations to come.
Fighting leaders of the ANCYL in Nkangala have “put aside” their differences for the unity of chair Bobo Mtshweni and his rival secretary Thabang Mathebula.
