Kubayi defers on deputy president dream

The justice minister has also rejected claims that she is part of a plot to stop party deputy president Paul Mashatile from standing in the ANC’s 2027 clective conference

- Lunga Mzangwe

ANC national working committee (NWC) member Mmamoloko Kubayi has downplayed her rumoured ambitions of contesting the party’s deputy presidency position in the 2027 elective conference, saying she will announce her position “at the right time”.

In an interview with the Mail & Guardian, Kubayi said she would, as in the run-up to the previous elective conference in 2022, wait for the processes of the ANC “to be opened”.

In 2022, Kubayi was endorsed by her branch in Protea South, Soweto, to run for ANC deputy president, but failed to meet the nomination threshold. She said she had been a victim of the party’s new electoral system that members were not yet accustomed to.

In March this year, she was replaced as the ANC’s economic transformation committee chair by Zuko Glodlimpi.

According to sources close to her camp, Kubayi had, since last year, asked to be removed from the position because she was overwhelmed with her work as justice minister, in addition to serving in the NWC and the national executive committee.

Kubayi has been accused of using her position as justice minister to push for ANC deputy president Paul Mashatile to not contest in 2027.