---
title: "Mabuza wants out, Mashatile wants in — new plot turn in South Africa’s game of thrones"
description: "Ramaphosa doesn’t know where to turn as his allies turn on each other."
type: "NewsArticle"
publisher: "Daily Maverick"
site: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za"
section: "EXPLAINER"
author: "Ferial Haffajee"
author_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/author/ferialhaffajee/"
canonical_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2023-01-27-mabuza-wants-out-mashatile-wants-in-new-plot-turn-in-south-africas-game-of-thrones/"
published: "2023-01-27T17:33:59"
updated: "2023-01-29T10:21:58"
lang: "en-ZA"
word_count: 315
---

# Mabuza wants out, Mashatile wants in — new plot turn in South Africa’s game of thrones

> Ramaphosa doesn’t know where to turn as his allies turn on each other.

By Ferial Haffajee · Published 27 January 2023, 19:33 SAST · Updated 29 January 2023, 12:21 SAST

## Key points
- This week, Deputy President David Mabuza threw down the gauntlet to President Cyril Ramaphosa, asking him if he should stay in his role or resign and make way for the ANC's Deputy President Paul Mashatile. Mashatile has been vocal in his ambitions to take on a larger role within the ANC, having played a key role in securing Ramaphosa's election in 2017. Meanwhile, Mabuza has seen his own presidential ambitions fizzle out due to the decline of support from his stronghold of Mpumalanga. Now Ramaphosa is stuck between loyalty to Mabuza and appeasing Mashatile's ambitions, which could lead to a face-off between the two men vying for power. It remains to be seen how this will play out and who will come out on top.
- Deputy President David Mabuza threw down the gauntlet to President Cyril Ramaphosa this week, asking him to make a decision about his future.
- Paul Mashatile, the newly elected ANC deputy president, has made it clear he wants to be more than just a figurehead in Luthuli House.
- In 2017, Mabuza's support for Ramaphosa was key in securing him the ANC leadership crown.
- Now, Ramaphosa must decide between loyalty to Mabuza and appeasing Mashatile's ambitions of becoming president.

## Content

His power spent, the deputy president David Mabuza threw down the gauntlet to President Cyril Ramaphosa this week.

[Is he on the rope, or isn’t he](https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2023-01-05-future-of-mabuza-hangs-in-balance-as-anc-ponders-mashatile-for-sa-deputy-president/)? He asked Ramaphosa and said he would not hang onto this job but would resign if the ANC deputy president Paul Mashatile wanted it.

Mabuza had been reading all the interviews the ANC deputy president Paul Mashatile gave in the weeks before and after his election as the party’s number two.

Those interviews make clear that he will not cool his heels at Luthuli House until the 2024 national election. Instead, he wants to get going as [“Mr Implementer”, as the *Sunday World* calls him.](https://sundayworld.co.za/55th-anc-national-conference/mashatile-readies-to-be-the-ancs-mr-implementer-in-government/)

At 61 years old, [Mashatile wants to be deputy president](https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2022-12-07-the-man-who-would-be-anc-king-never-ever-bet-against-paul-mashatile/) and then the top job after spending the past few years as a king-maker.

At the party’s 2017 elective conference, where Ramaphosa was elected leader by 179 votes, everybody knew that Mashatile had won him the crown.

![anc top seven](https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/ANC-for-Top-7-2022-1.jpg)

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He had done so by getting Mabuza to drop his support for Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, who also ran. Because ‘DD’, as the deputy president is known, brought the highest number of delegates to the conference, swung it for Ramaphosa.

Mabuza also had presidential ambitions and spent from 2018 to 2022 playing the deputy.

But in the meantime, his stronghold of Mpumalanga fell under the control of various warring factions of the ANC and fell apart.

Now Mabuza faces the ambitions of a young politician breathing down his back, and he does so almost isolated without a meaningful ANC constituency.

Ramaphosa is caught between a rock and a hard place. He owes loyalty to Mabuza, but if he doesn’t give Mashatile what he wants, he could face a tough year and the possibility of a face-off with the man who wants to be ‘President Paul’. **DM**