For many outside the ANC, news that Bejani Chauke had emerged as the branches’ favourite to assume the role of the party’s treasurer-general at the party’s electoral conference starting this week, may have come as a surprise.
Chauke’s rivals for the position, ANC spokesperson Pule Mabe and most recently former Ekurhuleni mayor and regional leader Mzwandile Masina, enjoy greater media prominence that he does.
Chauke describes himself as “part of the team” that managed President Cyril Ramaphosa’s CR17 Campaign that saw Ramaphosa beat Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma to become head of the ANC.
His role as part of the team, was to interact with business leaders to find the funds to present Ramaphosa as the ANC and by extension, the country’s best hope.
“They were very cordial to us. We maintained that relationship until today. I can still make a call and I say to a business leader, there is someone who does not have school fees, may you assist? For instance, when I recently went to eThekwini for by-elections we found a house with eight people staying there. I called a business leader and said I want you to come build this family. Yesterday they started building a house and I’ll be travelling to eThekwini to hand over the keys.”
He points out that this fundraising outcome – finding money to help those in need instead of using it for the fundraiser’s personal interests, is in line with the ANC traditions.
It is this ability to source the necessary resources that he believes will stand him in good stead to replace Paul Mashatile as the caretaker of the 110-year-old party’s treasury.
It is however this proximity to business, especially white business, that has alienated Ramaphosa to some ANC structures who have accused him of being a “Stellenbosch Mafia” (a reference to established white business) acolyte.
“The president was a businessman. If you are a businessman you will be close to business people. He is a president and therefore many business people will want to come with many interventions. Like now we have Eskom and many people are coming to him to say they want to intervene in this or other ways.
“I interact with business people. I interact with the Stellenbosch Mafia as people call them. I interact with ordinary and small business groupings. I do not see anything wrong with him being close to the business sector as a president and as a former businessman himself.”
On Phala Phala, he dismisses the cloud over Ramaphosa’s head as “just perceptions”.
“There are facts and in time they are going to be dealt with. This perception is being encouraged by the fact that we are going to conference. Once these facts are out under the microscope of the justice system, they will fall apart.”
Chauke says should he be elected, he will prioritise cadre development because he sees this as something good for the ANC and society.
“I am interested in equipping and developing comrades because when we talk about renewal without equipping and developing comrades, it becomes a slogan. The OR Tambo School of Leadership must come on board and work very hard to develop comrades to adjust to this renewal thing because it is still something in the air.
“I don’t think many people understand that this has to do with your conscience, your attitude beyond rhetoric. At the moment people are just saying you didn’t do one, two three…you are suspended. They are not taken through training, nobody mentors you to become a better person.
“We are saying ANC renewal but ANC is people. What are you doing with new members, what are you doing with ANC members who were suspended and are coming back now? Renewal is deeper than the rhetoric.”
Chauke is a beneficiary of an ANC programme of sending cadres out of the country to develop skills necessary for playing a leading role in the organisation and country.
“In 2012, comrade Ike More and I were sent to Australia to be taught how to campaign, mass mobilisation. We were exposed to the best campaigners and advisors in the world. People who were advising Obama were there to teach us. We need such programmes back in the ANC and they need funding. That is where I [as treasurer-general] come in.”
For Chauke, this equipping of comrades and exposing them to the best knowledge would not only work for the ANC but would also benefit the country too because cadres deployed to strategic areas would be taking the relevant skills with them.
As for his own ambitions as T-G, he wants and ANC that has developed so much talent that it is spoilt for choice and a party so well-funded that it can sustain itself for many years regardless of who succeeds him.
“I’d be very happy if we stopped the gatekeeping. There is a lot of gatekeeping in the ANC with people either using their surnames to gate keep. We need to stop that and allow people who are capable to lead and build the ANC and help society. That is what personally I’ll be very happy to see.
“Secondly, I would like to see the ANC having a surplus that no matter how corrupt anyone who comes after me is, it would take five years to finish it.
As for the second term he hopes Ramaphosa gets it will be: “implementation, implementation, implementation, he formed a lot of commissions, a lot of forums, raised a lot of money and now it will be time for him to implement all those programmes to benefit the masses of our people.”
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.