News24 | How the ANC wooed its former leaders to join elections campaign

• ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa told News24 that party officials "presented a plan" to its former leaders to join a "winning" elections campaign.
• ANC elections head Mdumiseni Ntuli said the party decided to rope in heavyweights including former president Thabo Mbeki for a 40-day battle plan. 
• Find everything you need to know about the 2024 general elections on News24's Elections Hub.

A meeting in April between Eswatini King Mswati III and ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa at his Mahlamba Ndlopfu official residence in Pretoria sealed the deal for former ANC deputy president David Mabuza to join the campaign trail. 

Just 40 days before the election, amid heightened speculation that the ANC could lose its 50% majority, Ramaphosa is said to have urged Mswati to convince Mabuza - who is the king's special advisor - to step out and drum up support. 

Mabuza was not the only senior party member to join the campaign. 

In its hour of need, the ANC also dusted off former president Thabo Mbeki to campaign for the party. According to insiders, Mbeki agreed to join the campaign only after he'd presented party bosses with a list of conditions to attend to after the elections.

According to sources with intimate knowledge of the inner workings of the ANC election campaign, Ramaphosa also used his tête-à-tête  with Mswati to discuss political matters. 

"The president went through King Mswati to speak to Mabuza because he is an advisor to the king. He asked him while he was visiting South Africa in April," said one source. 

WATCH | Mbeki takes Soweto by storm as he re-affirms support for the ANC

Another insider said Ramaphosa's approach made sense because "Mabuza has many business interests in Eswatini". 

It is unclear why Ramaphosa needed to go via King Mswati III.

Mabuza, after a political hiatus, was unleashed to bolster the ANC's elections campaign. He has attributed his absence from politics to ill-health.

However, a source close to Ramaphosa denied that the president asked for King Mswati III's intervention. 

"The president and DD [Mabuza] have a direct line. There was no fallout between the two of them. The president would not require Mswati to talk to DD for him. Just imagine the ridiculousness of it all, that a president would rely on a foreign head of state to speak to his former deputy." 

News24 understands that Mbeki had conditions that he wanted to be met before joining the election campaign.

Mbeki, who had not campaigned for the ANC since his removal from office in 2008, capitalised on his brand and piggybacked on the launch of his latest book, ANC Today Letters.

The source added: "The report that I got was that [ANC] head of elections Mdumiseni Ntuli was the one who helped to negotiate with Mbeki. I also understand that Mbeki raised certain issues and a promise was made to deal with those issues after the elections. 

"One of them was that, after the elections, the ANC would convene a forum of some sort to deal with all the issues raised during the elections and reflect on the party's performance, and possibly take actions against people who did not perform."

This is in line with Ramaphosa's comments earlier this month at a Black Business Council dinner, where he said he supported Mbeki's proposal for a national dialogue after the general elections.

Mabuza was present at that dinner, as was Mbeki, former National Assembly speaker Baleka Mbete, former deputy president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, former president Kgalema Motlanthe, and former premiers Tokyo Sexwale and Mathews Phosa. 

As part of the ANC's "strategic deployment plan" in Gauteng, Mbeki brought Jabulani Mall in Soweto to a complete standstill while Sexwale admitted to supporters that "the house is on fire" in Katlehong and Mbete embarked on a door-to-door campaign in Palm Ridge.. 

Mlambo-Ngcuka was tasked with securing the traditional leaders' vote in the North West.

Ramaphosa led from the front during a week-long campaign in KwaZulu-Natal, before wrapping up at the party's Siyanqoba rally at FNB Stadium in Soweto, Johannesburg, on Saturday.

READ | Bring it on. Ramaphosa dares political parties to take on 'turbocharged ANC'

One ANC elder, who asked not to be named, revealed that the former leaders "all agreed" they did not want to see the ANC losing power.

"They are convinced that, after the elections, we will be able to fix the ANC and renew it, and we will be able to weed out those unscrupulous elements in the ANC." 

The former leaders, the elder said, were "convinced" that their participation in the campaign was crucial.

"We did speak to TM [Mbeki] and he said he would participate. We did not ask him; we just told him that there was a view that he should be approached and so he said yes, he would do it.

"There was no resistance." 

READ | Elections 2024: 'Mandela's house is right here' – Sexwale says as ANC ramps up Soweto campaign

The insider said there was no need to convince Motlanthe because he is the ANC's electoral committee head.

"Mkhuluwa [Motlanthe's nickname, used to fondly describe a big brother] was not a problem, neither was former National Assembly speaker Baleka Mbete and Tokyo Sexwale. To get to Tokyo, we went through business associates." 

The source said the involvement of former leaders was a project driven by all the national leaders, not one particular person. 

"It's something that was sanctioned at the highest level.

"[Motlanthe] is active in the ANC, [therefore his participation] was a given. There is nothing unusual about this. [Former president Nelson Mandela] Madiba came out to campaign when Jacob Zuma was president. This was during the time when they were campaigning against [the Congress of the People] Cope, so it's not new." 

Ramaphosa told News24 that the former presidents had "wonderfully and positively" joined the campaign.

"We presented the campaign to them and they could see that there was only one way to go, and that was to be part of this winning campaign. As the campaign has been galloping and gathering momentum, we were pleased that they were a part of us and helped us to raise the level of our campaign." 

READ | 'We're not friends': Mbete tells residents not to vote for MK Party, says Zuma has 'gone crazy'

On Saturday, Ramaphosa thanked the former leaders and the party's leagues for throwing their weight behind the ANC.

Ntuli downplayed the effort that was needed to convince the former leaders to join the election campaign. 

He said: "We decided that when we entered that 40-day battle plan, that was a period we needed to ensure that all our leaders, including those who no longer occupy offices but who are former officials and members of the national executive committee, must go out and lead the election campaign." 

Ntuli said part of his responsibility, acting on the directive of national officials, was to develop an election campaign strategy, engage all former leaders, and agree with them about the nature of the activities they would participate in. 

"This came naturally. When we engaged with [former] president Mbeki, former deputy president Mabuza, former deputy president Kgalema, Mlambo-Ngcuka and Baleka, all of them said: 'Look, we are ANC; if you find a role for us, we will act.' There were no conditions attached." 

READ | From Siyanqoba to Tshela Thupa, parties rally support ahead of highly contested elections

In fact, Ntuli said Mbeki told him: "Unlike what you have conceptualised for me in terms of engaging with sectors, I want a ground campaign. I want to interact with the ordinary people on the ground." 

Therefore, Ntuli said, "that is why I think for the first time in 20 years, former president Thabo Mbeki was literally on the ground, not just engaging exclusive sectors but engaging with the population of South Africa. This was very wonderful for us."

When asked who was the most difficult to convince, he laughed and said: "None of them. Nobody had any conditions. They asked for the programme, asked where we wanted them to work, and got on with it." 

Political analyst Bheki Mngomezulu said: "The strategy was executed a little too late. Even if you had brought in someone who had been in the cold for 20 years, it wasn't going to work. None of them is Mandela. While the decision was correct, it was too late." 

Whether or not the ANC's strategy worked will be decided at the polls on Wednesday.