Deputy president David Mabuza on 8 October, 2021 in Durban. (Photo: Gallo Images/Darren Stewart). South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on 27 August, 2021 in Berlin, Germany. (Photo: Filip Singer - Pool/Getty Images) 
In several meetings this month, deputy president David Mabuza has met his principal, President Cyril Ramaphosa.
In those meetings, he said he is willing to step down if ANC deputy president Paul Mashatile wants to take over his desk in the Union Buildings. Ramaphosa has listened but not responded, according to staff in the Presidency.
After a week of rumours that he had resigned, Mabuza’s office on Friday, January 27, said in a statement that he has “taken a considered view that it is important to align party leadership roles with government responsibilities”.
Read in Daily Maverick: “Future of Mabuza hangs in balance as ANC ponders Mashatile for SA Deputy President”
Since the election of former President Jacob Zuma as ANC president in 2007, the party has battled for alignment with party and country presidential roles. Then the incumbent was recalled ahead of his term end, and the same happened to Zuma in 2018, when he was pushed to resign after Ramaphosa’s election as party president in 2017.
There has not been a similar imperative to change deputy presidents, but Mashatile signalled a new policy shift at the end of 2022. “I guess that members of the ANC would want the new deputy president to go and assist in government,” Mashatile told Sunday World in an interview.
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/od-ferial-mabuza-stepdown.jpg "David Mabuza gestures during an interview about his career and his future plans in politics during an interview in February 2017 in Nelspruit. (Photo by Gallo Images/Sunday Times/Masi Losi)")
The question is when
“I guess there will be a transitional mechanism because we don’t want these things to be acrimonious. There is a deputy president in government who is supposed to go until 2024. If he is no longer the deputy president of the ANC, should the deputy president of the ANC come into government? Ideally the answer should be yes, the new deputy should come in,” he said.
“The question is when, because there is an incumbent. That is where the transition starts, there is an engagement. Maybe the current deputy might say it is okay: I will do another six months and leave, or 12 months. But I guess that members of the ANC would want the new deputy president to go and assist in government,” he (Mashatile) added.
Mabuza wants Ramaphosa’s confirmation
Mabuza wants Ramaphosa’s confirmation that he still serves at his pleasure, in the face of the rumour mill growing louder and louder that Mashatile will be appointed deputy, sooner rather than later.
“To this end, he (Mabuza) has engaged the president on his intention to resign in order to foster leadership synergies and cohesion both in the party and the state. The deputy president is awaiting a decision to that effect,” said the statement.
In the week, the Presidency’s spokesperson Vincent Magwenya told Daily Maverick that rumours of Mabuza’s resignation were false. He did not reply to a request for comment on the latest development.
For Mashatile to get in, he must be sworn in as an ANC MP. According to the Electoral Act, political parties can change their lists annually or if a vacancy arises, says Daily Maverick’s associate editor Marianne Merten. The deputy president has to be appointed by members of the National Assembly.
DM