Navigating South Africa’s deputy presidency is akin to walking through a minefield

[View in browser]( [Mail & Guardian]( M&G Mornings | Tue 11 Jul   [Ron Derby] Since the dawn of our democracy, if there’s one scrap for power and influence that has come to define the “bad” in our politics, it’s the covert and sometimes overt battle between the country’s deputy president and his boss. Of all cabinet posts that the President chooses, it’s the one position where he has no other choice than to go with the choice of voting delegates at the seven ANC elective conferences since the unbanning of the party. We haven’t had a perfect match in that time. Nelson Mandela preferred current president, Cyril Ramphosa, over Thabo Mbeki. There was a point when Mbeki favoured Nkosasana Dlamini Zuma over Jacob Zuma. In the end, Zuma didn’t really have a favourite as both Kgalema Motlanthe and Cyril Ramaphosa would go on to challenge him. David Mabuza’s deputy presidency was probably the most uneventful of all, hence his rather anticlimactic departure from the stage at the December 2022 elective conference. His replacement however in Paul Mashatile is a man of ambition and as such his ascension has once again raised political temperatures in a party that has never really been won over by Ramaphosa. Still, there are many question marks over the man himself, as seen in recent weeks. Readers should look out for Mail & Guardian’s Lizeka Tandwa’s coverage of Mashatile in the next week as we get a closer look at the man that may one day be president, especially if the ANC manages to retain its majority in next year’s polls. Ron Derby | Editor-in-Chief [@Ronderby]( [ANC Executive Committee Meeting at St George Hotel]( [Magashule vs Mbalula: Icons of South Africa’s leadership malaise]( The language on both sides of the kerfuffle highlights the depth of our political descent [// Read more]( [ManuelChang]( Premium [Mozambican Manuel Chang to be extradited from South Africa to United States imminently]( A US government jet is waiting at Lanseria to fly the former Mozambican finance minister implicated in an international fraud scandal to New York to face fraud charges Thank you for supporting the Mail & Guardian This article is available only to subscribers Subscribe Join the M&G Community The Mail & Guardian is committed to providing all our readers with the best possible experience. By subscribing, you become a valued member of the M&G community, actively championing independent journalism and enabling us to deliver the latest news directly to you. 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