Although ANC general manager Fébé Potgieter would not be drawn on whether she was open to serving the party as a member of the top six, she did say the party would have to hold discussions during their December conference on how to ensure that the secretary-general’s office has enough support.

ANC Treasurer-General Paul Mashatile is currently occupying three positions in the party’s top six. In addition to his treasurer-general post, he has been acting as secretary-general and deputy secretary-general since last year.

“This is the first time in the history of the ANC’s 111 years that we have had this difficulty in the secretary-general’s office, because before the deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte passed away, she was not well for quite a long period, so it has definitely had an impact.

Fébé Potgieter speaks at the University of South Africa launch of Dr Paul Tembe’s book, ‘Xi Jinping Thought — Through South African Eyes‘, on 11 October 2022. (Photo: Ihsaan Haffejee)

“The secretary-general’s office has the responsibility for keeping things going in the organisation, whereas the president is responsible for the running of government and the business of the country. Your secretary-general is responsible for your organisational structure and outward-looking approach of the movement. 

“The secretary general’s office has to ensure that it monitors the manifesto… it makes sure that the programmes and policies the organisation agreed upon are implemented and carried forward. I think, when looking at the reflections on conference about the renewal of the ANC, it will definitely have to look at how one strengthens the office,” she said.

Potgieter was speaking to Daily Maverick on the sidelines of the launch of Dr Paul Tembe’s book, “Xi Jinping Thought — Through South African Eyes”, held at Unisa’s Pretoria campus on Tuesday morning.

The Department of Linguistic and Modern Languages in the College of Human Science @Unisa, hosted the launch of the book titled XI Jinping Thought — Through South Africa Eyes today 11 October 2022. pic.twitter.com/yIn8GnsijX

— Unisa (@unisa) October 11, 2022

Potgieter has been endorsed by the Northern Cape provincial executive committee for the secretary-general position. Other senior members of the party who have been tipped to occupy this position include national executive committee members Fikile Mbalula, Senzo Mchunu, Malusi Gigaba and the secretary-general’s office coordinator, Gwen Ramokgopa.

Potgieter said she would be open to speaking about the leadership race once branch nominations had been wrapped up on 25 October.

“My position… is that we should give the branches the opportunity to nominate. We are having 3,979 branch meetings across the country and that is an opportunity for membership to reflect on who they want to represent them at conference and who they want to nominate for the NEC,” she said.

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She acknowledges the growing calls from within the party for women to be elected into key positions, rather than always having to deputise for their male counterparts. If Potgieter is nominated and elected to the position, it will mark the first time the ANC has a woman running the secretary-general’s office. 

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Of the seven provinces that have held conferences, Gauteng is the only one that has more women than men in its executive. The late Jessie Duarte was the only woman elected to the ANC’s top six at the 2017 national conference.

“Part of feminist leadership and feminist transformative leadership is to look not just at the numbers, even though representation matters. There is a study that has been done by a group of young researchers in the ANC looking at this question of deputy secretaries since 1994 — most of them only served one term. The same goes for provincial and regional structures and I think this is what the national conference needs to address,” said Potgieter. 

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She also supports the notion of a generational mix, which would see both younger and older, more experienced party members elected into leadership positions.

“It is an important part of where we are today, because young people need to also play a role in the ANC, ideologically, through programmes and in terms of where it needs to go in the next couple of years. Given the demographics for South Africa and Africa, we need to ensure that young people feel included,” she said.

While the ANC has been determined to renew itself, Potgieter noted that it is also important for the party to remind itself of the mission of creating a better life for all — something she said the party had stood for since 1912. DM