By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
President Cyril Ramaphosa is reportedly considering newly appointed Defence and Military Veterans Minister Thandi Modise as his running mate ahead of the ANC’s national elective conference next year.
According to a Sunday Times report, ANC insiders claimed Modise’s name was high on the list of female leaders Ramaphosa’s faction is considering lobbying ANC members to support for the top job of deputy president.
Modise was recalled from parliament to the national cabinet after Ramaphosa announced sweeping changes to his cabinet.
Modise, who fought in the ANC’s armed struggle in exile and chaired two parliamentary committees on defence, is the new minister of defence and replaces former minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, whose standing with President Cyril Ramaphosa took a knock recently when she contradicted him by saying the unrest and violence in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng was not an insurrection.
The move by Ramaphosa’s faction to nominate a female leader comes as pressure grows on the ANC to elect its first female president.
Insiders also claimed Ramaphosa was considering Modise as his deputy to counter his rival’s attempts to nominate a female candidate at the ANC’s December 2022 conference in a bid to oppose his leadership of the governing party.
But this raises questions about Deputy President David Mabuza’s position in the ANC and government.
Mabuza recently returned to the country after he travelled to Russia for what the Presidency initially said was supposed to be a few days of leave for a scheduled medical consultation.
This is not the first time Ramaphosa has considered a female deputy. Ahead of the ANC’s 2017 Nasrec conference, International Relations Minister Naledi Pandor was approached for the top post, but she declined the nomination.
Modise, the youngest of six children, was born on 25 December 1959 in Huhudi township near Vryburg in the North West.
In 1976 she slipped over the border into Botswana to join the ANC and was later transferred to Angola where she received military training at Nova-Katenga and Funda camps. At times there were only 30 women out of a total of 500 trainees. On some occasions she was the only woman in the camp.
In 1978 she returned to South Africa to work underground as an MK operative. She was arrested in 1979, while she was four months’ pregnant. Modise received an eight-year jail sentence which she served at Kroonstad Prison and was the first woman in South Africa to be jailed for MK activities.
While she was in prison, Modise enrolled for studies and completed her matriculation and a BComm degree in Industrial Psychology and Economics. She was released in 1988.
Modise has remained committed to the Huhudi community. She started the African National Congress Womens League (ANCWL) branch in Huhudi, and is a founder member of the Lesedi Community Clinic.
She served on the ANCWL National Executive from 1991 to 1993, when she was elected deputy president a position she held until 2004. Between 1998 and 2004 she also served as chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Defence and the Joint Standing Committee on Defence, and as a Member of Parliament. In addition, Modise serves as the Deputy Secretary General of the ANC and also a member of its National Executive Committee.On 19 November 2010 Modise was appointed Premier of North West province.
Thandi Modise has four children and lives in Johannesburg.
References – SAHO.