Ebrahim Rasool steps back from ANC role to prioritise international humanitarian efforts

The ANC has no hard feelings against its veteran, Ebrahim Rasool, who recently rejected the deployment to convene the party’s provincial task team (PTT) in the Western Cape, the duty that the party hoped would improve its support for the upcoming local government elections.   

In reconfiguring its provincial structure, the ANC’s national executive committee (NEC) replaced the provincial executive committee (PEC) with the PTT and appointed Rasool as convenor. 

The party appointed Linda Moss as the first deputy convener, Vuyiso Tyhalisisu as second deputy convener, Thandi Manikivana Makasi as coordinator, Melanie Tembo as first deputy coordinator, Phlisa Makeleni as second deputy coordinator, and Richard Dyantyi as fundraiser. 

However, the NEC has since replaced Rasool with the former councillor of Cape Town Municipality, Jeremia Thuynsma, after the former ambassador to the United States had declined the appointment.

ANC provincial spokesperson Sifiso Mtsweni said the party welcomed Rasool’s decision to excuse himself, which he said was not a declination, “but a plea to focus his energies on international work, which is a very important pillar of our agenda”.

“Cde Rasool has been a prolific diplomat on behalf of the ANC in the international space. He has requested to focus on that important pillar, which we welcome wholeheartedly,” said Mtsweni. 

He said the ANC saw no need to convince Rasool to take up the deployment to the province because it viewed his international activities as also part of the work of the party at an international stage.

Mtsweni said the leaders who were deployed to lead the PTT were chosen among many of its experienced and energetic veterans, former leaders, and young people of integrity and good standing in society, including Thuynsma. 

“Cde Jeremia Thuynsma is a committed, capable, and well-experienced leader who has cut his teeth in the youth movement, has led the SACP, and is a long-time councillor in the City of Cape Town (an Alderman). 

“He has served in the ANC PEC before and, therefore, is not a stranger to the task that is before him. We have full confidence in his ability and leadership,” said Mtsweni.

In turning down the deployment to convene the PTT, Rasool cited his personal international engagements. 

He posted on social media that on November 3, he, for the first time since the 80s, declined the deployment. 

“I have signed a contract with a global entity, and I’ve advanced the work of my World for All Foundation. 

“This work takes me to the vulnerable parts of the world needing humanitarian and development interventions; to societies in conflicts requiring peacemaking and statecraft; and to geo-political debates and platforms where a coherent and courageous response is needed to the bullying of a superpower as its dominance crumbles,” he wrote. 

He said such responsibility keeps him busy from having 100% effort to the ANC. 

“Especially not one of leading an overly large and diverse leadership collective in the face of a resourced and slick incumbent party in the WC,” said Rasool. 

He said since the 80s, he gladly worked for the ANC in the sacrifice for freedom.

“During the mid-1990s, I was asked to lead the ANC from the low 33%, and we took it to government in the province.

“After Polokwane, the ANC led by (then president Jacob) Zuma asked me to resign as premier, I did so,” he said. 

However, political analyst Sakhile Hadebe did not believe that international engagements would have prevented Rasool from assisting his party. 

He said the ANC in the province was facing historical challenges of bridging the gap between the coloured and black communities, who have historical divisions. 

He stated that the party was facing serious challenges in winning the province, which it governed between 2001 and 2009 before it lost it back to the DA. 

“It is difficult to rebuild the ANC in the Western Cape, not just to win the Western Cape. You saw during the January 8 Statement, the gathering was not at the big stadium, but it was just at a community stadium,” said Hadebe. 

Rasool was the premier between 2001 to 2008 and was succeeded by ANC’s Lynne Brown, who served from 2008 to 2009. 

Neville Delport, a former ANC provincial secretary, recently defected to the DA, along with two former ANC councillors, Daniel Baadjies (Langeberg) and Paul Strauss (Cederberg), and former ANC regional executive member Jason Donn.

One of the reasons cited for their move was their dissatisfaction with the ANC increasing the number of black leaders in the Provincial Task Team (PTT) within a province where the coloured community is the dominant population.

However, Mtsweni said the ANC, whose agenda is to unite South Africans, sees no racial divide between coloured and black communities because “in our view, we are one!”. 

bongani.hans@inl.co.za