John Matisonn: It’s true - Patrice Motsepe has entered Presidential, with brother-in-law CR’s backing

Key topics:Motsepe's ANC presidency bid gains steam with Ramaphosa's backingANC faces internal rifts, coalition dilemmas ahead of 2029 electionsMbalula slams early campaigning, questions Motsepe’s ANC credentials.Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox at 5:30am weekdays. Register here.Support South Africa’s bastion of independent journalism, offering balanced insights on investments, business, and the political economy, by joining BizNews Premium. Register here.If you prefer WhatsApp for updates, sign up to the BizNews channel here.The auditorium doors will open for BNIC#2 on 10 September 2025 in Hermanus. For more information and tickets, click here..By John Matisonn.The campaign to elect billionaire businessman Patrice Motsepe president of the ANC and the country has taken off and appears to have the backing of President Cyril Ramaphosa. Several sources in the ANC this week reflected on the shifting sands in the ANC leadership, indicating dissatisfaction with the current field of potential candidates for president. Going by opinion polls and the results of the 2024 election, the next government, elected in 2029, will again be a coalition, and the party will again have to choose between partnering with the Democratic Alliance (DA) or Mkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP).The latest SRF opinion poll, conducted this month, shows the ANC at about 40%, the DA at 26%, and the MK at around 18%. The FFF has fallen to about 3%. This reflects ANC support bouncing back from its low of 32% last month, during the budget crisis over the VAT increase, continuing steady growth of the DA since its election result of 22%, and an MK boost from 12% to 18% in a month, drawn especially from the EFF’s decline to 3%. While the dominant ANC leadership would not be comfortable with the MKP or EFF in the coalition, they have concerns about the suitability of the current choices, led by Deputy President Paul Mashatile and ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula. Some sources suggest that Mashatile, who was thought to favour the MK and EFF as partners over the DA, has recently been at pains to shift his preference to the DA, which may reflect the strong objections from business quarters, whose funding he will need. While business would welcome the elevation of a top businessman from outside ANC party official positions to head the government, Motsepe’s candidacy would represent a significant upheaval within the party’s existing membership and structures.It would accelerate the growing rift between the ANC and its tripartite allies, the South African Communist Party (SACP) and union federation Cosatu. The SACP has already vowed to field its own candidates in local elections in 2026/7. While communist candidates are unlikely to win significant numbers of seats anywhere, the disruptive effect of this effective breakaway on the ANC should not be dismissed. Cosatu, which traditionally provides the majority of ANC volunteer campaign workers, would be divided, with many members prompted to vote SACP and others to stay at home, unwilling to choose.A Motsepe ANC presidency would substantially shift the debate inside the ANC to a greater business focus, but the party has been so degraded by decades of corruption that it may struggle to present a coherent, more modern vision to invigorate its support base, let alone expand it.In terms of ANC rules, candidates are required not to begin campaigning till closer to the 2027 party elective conference. This has not stopped campaigning, instead driving into a kind of underground campaigning while pretending to adhere to the rules..Read more:.BN Briefing – Patrice Motsepe as next President of ANC; Darshan Leitner to SA: Stay away from Israel..ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula, who is expected to be a candidate himself, recognised this fiction this week when he repeatedly appealed to members to stop, but reserved his ire for Motsepe.“To those people who are always saying we want Motsepe, we want Motsepe, I don’t even know if he is a member of the ANC,” he said. “Yes, his money we eat it, he donates from time to time.” Mbalula said that if Motsepe was interested, he must work within ANC structures because those who were campaigning were irritating “like raw meat in your throat”.“Every Sunday Motsepe is touted, touted by who? And when? We said to you wait and be disciplined. Those who want to eat people’s monies, they must go and eat them far away. We are not going to be led by money here,” he said.Referring to Motsepe, who owns the Mamelodi Sundowns football club, and is President of the Confederation of African Football (CAF), Mbalula poured scorn on his readiness to take control of the ANC, and questioned his ANC membership record.“Now they are talking about people whom we don’t know if they have branches. They are saying they are going to be leaders of the ANC because they have money. ANC is not like running a football club and all of that. You work for it. This is not like (Mamelodi) Sundowns or (Orlando) Pirates.“Why are comrades obsessed with who must lead in the next conference in 2027? When we are in a muddy place like this. Who doesn’t see and appreciate the moment we are in as an organisation? Comrades are just refusing the disaster that is facing us…“…They just want us to talk about the (2027) leadership contest when we said we must wait and will have enough time to talk about it in the organisation. And that is what is important to all of as an organisation in the ANC at the present moment. If we don’t do that, we will be faster out of power than expected.”Mbalula warned that next year’s local elections are key to the party’s future: "If we don't come back in 2026, it will clearly define what will happen in 2029. Why are comrades obsessed with who must lead in 2027 when we are in so much mud?" He also criticised Mashatile's supporters for campaigning, but ANC sources criticised Mbalula for not reprimanding his own supporters, who they say are doing the same.Mbalula also beratedthe SACP for contesting by-elections despite an agreement to resolve this matter within the Tripartite Alliance.Motsepe’s public engagement in politics may become more evident when the national dialogue, announced by Ramaphosa with a budget of R711million, holds its first meetings on August 15.

John Matisonn: It’s true - Patrice Motsepe has entered Presidential, with brother-in-law CR’s backing

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