Carien du Plessis on Thoko Didiza But why her? The story amongst analysts in the party is that Gauteng brought her in with an eye on the ANC's 2017 elective congress. Didiza - who resigned from government when Mbeki resigned, and who only made her comeback to politics four years later - was brought in by the province, more specifically by provincial ANC chairperson Paul Mashatile. Mashatile is a vocal critic of President Jacob Zuma. Mashatile is said not to want Ramokgopa, who is closer to ANC deputy provincial chairperson David Makhura (also Gauteng premier). Neither does he trust deputy ANC chairperson in Tshwane, Mapiti Matsena, who was close to Zuma in the past. So Mashatile needs someone, like Didiza, who will strengthen his hand ahead of 2017, party analysts say. His chosen candidate for Johannesburg, Parks Tau, is already in place, which means he has a grip on two of the three metros in the province. Ekurhuleni, where Deputy Trade and Industry Minister Mzwandile Masina, a Zuma loyalist, is a mayoral candidate, was never going to be in his grasp. So, given divisions in the ANC in the region, would it have been better to leave it at the choice of the branches without muddling? Would it have prevented Tshwane from burning this week anyway? Would Matsena have saved Tshwane from an opposition coalition? Who knows? If the decision to nominate Didiza stands, and if she wins the city for the ANC, she would have to rise above what is good only for the party - appeasing the factions by showering them with resources and deployments - and do what is good for the country, by governing the city by the book. These demands can be in conflict with each other. On the other hand, should her candidature not bring the ANC back into power in the metro, and should it slip into opposition hands, who knows if the ANC will do what's best for the city and capitulate? Or will the disgruntled ones at the bottom do what seems to be good for the ANC, but what is really catastrophic for everyone, and push the self-destruct button? >From Daily Maverick -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum. To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/yclsa-eom-forum/006a01d1cbc1%2420b53c10%24621fb430%24%40com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
