Ekurhuleni mayor Mzwandile Masina File picture: African News Agency (ANA) Ekurhuleni mayor Mzwandile Masina File picture: African News Agency (ANA)
Johannesburg - Embattled Ekurhuleni executive mayor Mzwandile Masina insists that he isn’t a rebel within the ruling party but a voice of reason that makes many “deeply uncomfortable”.
In an exclusive interview on Friday, Masina said: “There is nothing rebellious about me. What I am is an ANC activist who is deeply committed to the ideals of the movement.”
Masina has been seen as a thorn in the flesh of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s administration, first because
he didn’t support him during the
54th ANC elective conference but supported his opponent Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma.
Second, because he is a vocal supporter of radical economic transformation (RET), and isn’t shy to articulate his views on social media.
This week, Masina’s detractors claimed he had offered to resign after he was accused of bringing the party into disrepute by supporting the commander-in-chief of the EFF, Julius Malema, following a tweet that said that “white monopoly” should be left to collapse.
Masina has denied that he offered to resign.
“I do not serve my interests, but those of the organisation. I will always subject myself to the wisdom of the organisation, and will go wherever I am deployed,” he said.
Masina added that the ANC has always been a site for ideological contestation.
“If you go back into history, you will realise that at various epochs, there has been a lot of ideological contests within the ANC.
“The reality of the situation
is that in defining itself as a broad
church anchored on democratic centralism, the organisation is effectively pronouncing that while its orientation will always be pro-poor, its posture can be contested and that the dominant ideological tendency at any given time, will shape the organisation’s posture,” he said.
Masina added that as things stand, it appears that the dominant ideological tendency would shape the narrative within and outside the organisation.
“At present, the ideological tendency that is grounded deeply in RET is being contested by the tendency that seeks to maintain the status quo.
“To maintain the status quo, a narrative that those who support the ideals of RET are outlaws, must be created, because it is the only way to legitimise our persecution.
“Once we are persecuted, we can effectively be silenced. It has happened many times in the history of the ANC,” he said.
Masina maintained that the ANC is a democratic organisation which “makes allowance for different schools of thought to contend, and we are going to continuously engage one another as is our tradition.”
He said many of his comrades are afraid to face the elephant in the room and have a robust debate about RET.
“RET is not something that was constructed in the mind of Mzwandile Masina. It is a historical position of the ANC. Throughout history, ANC leaders have demanded radical economic transformation. The call for ‘freedom in our lifetime’ as articulated by the 1944 ANC Youth League generation that included the likes of OR Tambo, Nelson Mandela, Ida Mntwana, Walter Sisulu, Anton Lembede, Lillian Ngoyi and others, was fundamentally a call for radical political and economic transformation.”
Masina added that there is nothing untoward about his so-called ramble on Twitter.
“Social media has radically changed the political landscape in our country, and certainly, across the world. The age where political mobilisation and activism was dependent solely on face-to-face interactions is behind us. Even with the digital gap that exists in our country, there is still a lot of political engagement that happens on the social media space.
“We are battling to evolve from our traditional way of activism and political work.
“The implication is that there is a lot of confusion about what constitutes general political conversation and what constitutes conversation that ought to be restricted to structures of the organisation. It is a very thin line because the ANC is a leader of society and must always be responding and accounting to those it governs,” said Masina.
He added there was nothing wrong when he tweeted a post agreeing with “our ideological opponents that the commanding heights of the economy must be transformed”.
“This was incorrectly perceived as an affront to the ANC, and most disturbingly, as a racist position. In reality, it was a contribution and reflection on a discourse that has rooted itself in the minds of our people and which the ANC cannot shy away from or seek to contain within party structures.
“The fact of the matter is that the ANC has always been opposed to monopoly capital and imperialism, so it stands to reason that on the question of transforming the commanding heights of the economy, we ought to be standing on the side of radical change.”
Masina added that the ANC conference in Nasrec concluded with some very radical resolutions including the expropriation of land without compensation, the expansion of the mandate of the Reserve Bank, the implementation of National Health Insurance and the realisation of free higher education for the poor.
“If implemented fully, these resolutions can radically change the status quo in our country and ensure that the economy is no longer monopolised by a minority.
“The Nasrec Conference where these resolutions were adopted happened three years ago, and so, we need a national general council to evaluate how far we have gone in realising these resolutions.
“It is almost the end of the term for the current leadership collective, and it becomes important that we converge to evaluate our progress,” he said.