Quinton Mtyala
Political Writer
AFTER losing a bruising battle to reclaim the leadership of the Western Cape ANC, Mcebisi Skwatsha has been removed from two powerful positions inside the party’s provincial legislature caucus.
ANC provincial secretary Songezo Mjongile announced that Skwatsha would be replaced by Chris Stali as chairman of the party’s caucus and Millicent Tingwe as the deputy chief whip.
Last night, Skwatsha did not respond to several Cape Times requests for comment.
As ANC caucus chairman, Skwatsha was responsible for leading and planning meetings and driving the party’s political agenda in the legislature.
Stali is a former MEC for cultural affairs and sport and Sanco provincial secretary.
Tingwe is an outgoing national executive member of the ANC Youth League and a former part-time member of the now defunct Western Cape youth commission.
Tingwe, Johan Gelderblom and Hishaam Mohamed have also been voted on to the provincial executive committee as additional members.
With Loyiso Nkohla, Senzeni Mphila and Andile Lili, Tingwe is the latest member of the league to have seen their political careers rocket after Marius Fransman’s election as provincial party leader, with more than half of the ANC’s caucus in the City of Cape Town now consisting of current or former league members.
With his removal from a leadership position within the ANC’s provincial legislature caucus, Skwatsha’s political influence has been severely limited to his power base in Gugulethu.
Skwatsha’s supporters saw his removal as an attempt to “deal” with him following the ANC provincial conference in February, where Fransman triumphed, aided by the support of the ANC Youth League whose 21 votes clinched the contest even as Skwatsha and his supporters cried foul.
Despite expectations that he would be redeployed, Skwatsha has remained in the front row of the opposition benches despite Fransman’s criticism of the ANC’s Provincial Legislature caucus.
“He has done his work diligently, and he’s been a disciplined cadre. What they are doing is anti-ANC, and it’s done to break the ANC apart,” said one of Skwatsha’s supporters.
There was also criticism of the choice of Tingwe as the ANC’s provincial legislature chief whip.
But Mjongile, responding to the claims, said the ANC took a decision to “strengthen” the capacity of its provincial legislature caucus.
“We’ve decided to retain Lynne (Brown) as the leader with Pierre Uys remaining as chief whip,” said Mjongile.
He denied that there was anything sinister about Skwatsha’s removal but said the ANC’s provincial executive reserved the right to deploy where it saw fit.
“We will always deploy cadres with various responsibilities. There’s nothing underhand.
“The issue of changing responsibility is part of the work of the ANC. It’s also about grooming future leaders,” said Mjongile, himself a former member of the league’s national executive.
The league’s leadership at national level has lobbied since last year on “generational mix” in ANC leadership structures.
This is being viewed in some quarters as an attempt to replace the party’s current secretary-general Gwede Mantashe with former league president and current Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula.
Idasa political analyst Justin Sylvester said Skwatsha’s removal was “not surprising” and had been expected.
“It’s the new (ANC provincial) leadership’s attempt at consolidating their power in order to exert their authority on the party in the Western Cape,” said Sylvester.
He said the ANC’s recent history in the Western Cape as well as in other provinces might have influenced the move.
“With threats to Zuma’s incumbency, they would want to avoid a situation where the ANC (in the Western Cape) is divided ahead of a national conference as happened before Polokwane.”