POLITRICKING | ANC Chief Whip Mdumiseni Ntuli urges introspection amid SETA controversy and GNU tensions

“The first thing that came to mind was that this is definitely going to be challenged, and there will be reasons for people to challenge it,” these are the initial thoughts that crossed African National Congress (ANC) Chief Whip, Mdumiseni Ntuli’s mind when he saw lists of new board members for various sector education and training authority (SETA) entities.

“People are going to say these people, all of them prominent members of the ANC… there’s something that we are suspecting about it,” he told EWN’s Politricking with Tshidi Madia.

Ntuli said people would assume that the party wanted to use the SETA boards to further grow the ANC’s influence.

The list had appointments which included Minerals and Petroleum Resources Minister, Gwede Mantashe’s son Buyambo Mantashe, who was appointed chair of the manufacturing, engineering and related services SETA, the senior Mantashe’s former advisor Gwebinkundla Qonde, former KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube, former head of the KZN transport department Siboniso Mbhele, current ANC KZN convener Mike Mabuyakhulu, Johannesburg MMC, deputy ANC regional chairperson Loyiso Masuku and former deputy communications minister Philly Mapulane.

Ntuli, who features on this week’s episode, reflected on the damage caused by a decision endorsed by Higher Education and Training Minister Dr Nobuhle Nkabane and the party’s internal processes, which only allow such developments to go unnoticed until they are already in the public domain.

He said while he had no questions about the qualifications and capacity of those appointed, the ANC must consider how it manages such incidents.

“The working style in the ANC… and how, as the chief whip, I deal with areas where I think something fundamentally wrong has happened internally and externally, needs to be revisited,” he said.

He said while he understood that it was an independent process, being able to cast his eyes on the list would have created room to raise questions about the optics posed by what simply looks like the rewarding of ANC members.

Ntuli also reflected on his party’s handling of the Government of National Unity (GNU) and its coalition politics, which has been characterised by public spats between the two largest parties - the ANC and Democratic Alliance (DA), and experienced a protracted impasse over the budget policy statement that nearly broke the GNU.

He said for ANC MPs, the terrain is tougher because the frustrations expressed by many of their coalition partners working with the DA are felt every day in Parliament.

ANC Members of Parliament (MPs) have been pushing for an end to the party’s partnership with the DA, its caucus has effectively communicated this to the party’s secretary general Fikile Mbalula, who’s also been accused of trying to keep the organisation’s national executive committee (NEC) from sitting, in the fear that the structure, defined as the highest decision-making body in between conferences will push for the DA to be booted out of the coalition.

It was the NEC that resolved to go into a coalition with the DA following the ANC’s failure to secure an absolute majority at the 2024 general elections.

“Every time you [DA] stand up in parliament, you denigrate your partner, pretend the past 30 years have been worse, that’s what has been causing a level of unhappiness on the part of the ANC MPs, including myself,” he said.

Ntuli said the public objections to legislation such as expropriation without compensation and the Employment Equity Amendment Act were in addition to what ANC MPs experienced in committees.

“It’s natural, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with them having a strong view that the DA are taking us for a ride, the DA doesn’t respect the ANC,” continued Ntuli.

He did, however, say recent days had left him feeling optimistic, following engagements with the DA’s chief whip George Michalakis, who not only committed to managing the DA caucus’s attitude towards the ANC, but has already started to illustrate this in the house.

EWN also understands DA federal leader John Steenhuisen read the caucus the Riot Act over some of the tensions between the two GNU partners.

On the contentious debate around succession in his party, Ntuli said their party should look to the recent Northern Cape provincial conference, saying that pathway might lead to a more united ANC.

In April, Zamani Saul was re-elected provincial chair, unopposed, along with his other officials. The Northern Cape premier and ANC chair said it was important for the organisation’s elective conferences not to lead to divisions.

“The first thing towards regaining our people is the ANC’s ability to handle its own internal processes in a way that keeps everybody inside,” he said.

Ntuli said he was optimistic that experiences, including the recent elections, had led to an awakening in the party.

“If there are people in the ANC who have not learned anything, especially with the elections of May 2024, it will be difficult for me to believe that those people are genuine members of the ANC,” he said.

Ntuli said the ANC must find a formula to manage issues, including conferences, as part of the party’s journey to restoring the confidence it once had from South Africans.

“Different views exist, but we should not allow them to be about life and death.” He added.

The ANC chief whip said there must be a way to talk through differences and find areas to converge.