ANC provincial chair Oscar Mabuyane said he would be guided by party processes regarding his political future when his term ends in 2026.
There have been discussions in ANC circles about Mabuyane’s political future in the province after he served two terms as secretary and is now on his second term as a chair.
Mabuyane was elected provincial secretary in 2009 and served two terms until 2017 when he decided to contest for the chair position against Phumulo Masualle.
Mabuyane’s departure plan from provincial politics was first hatched in 2022 when ANC supporters campaigned for him to be ANC deputy president.
However, he lost at the ANC national conference at Nasrec, Johannesburg, in December to Paul Mashatile who got 2,178 votes, against Mabuyane’s 1,858.
Speaking to the Dispatch, Mabuyane said: “I don’t have sleepless nights about positions in the ANC.
“Premiership is not a career,” he said.
“When the year 2026 comes, the ANC will decide. If the ANC says I must go to the National Assembly, I will do that.”
Mabuyane said he had never pushed himself for positions in the party.
“I am not a desperate leader.
“I had never wanted to be the provincial secretary of the ANC.
“I was literally frogmarched to be the provincial secretary by ANC members,” he said.
“When I was an SRC president at the University of Fort Hare, it was difficult to get another SRC president. I had to be literally begged to continue with another term."
“What I like about this is that I have always come in as an underdog and work in such a way that I must prove myself.
“I have reached a stage of not being paranoid,” he said.
Mabuyane said he had never regarded politics as a career.
“One can only plan their future when they are working on their careers.
“I am not scared of what will happen with me after the end of my term.
“I have worked with people of this province.
“I go an extra mile when I do the work because I am dedicated.
“When I was an SRC president at the University of Fort Hare, it was difficult to get another SRC president.
“I had to be literally begged to continue with another term.
“Students felt I needed to continue with the good work that I was doing.
“I have got a passion for working for our people.
“If you look at the last provincial conference [May 2022], some even ruled me out but I emerged,” he said.
Mabuyane said he believed there was stability in the politics of the province compared with the period before he took over as chair.
“In 2017, comrade Phumulo [Masualle] was the premier and he did not get elected for another term as chair of the province, but we allowed him to continue as the premier even when many people were of the view that he needed to be recalled.
“Regardless of what happened in that conference at the ICC [that was dubbed the festival of chairs], we made sure that comrade Phumulo was elected to the national executive committee of the ANC.
“This thing of working with people based on factions is wrong.
“We have instilled a culture of collective leadership in the ANC in the province.”
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