Soviet Lekganyane

Molapi Soviet Lekganyane is a South African politician from Limpopo province. A member of the African National Congress (ANC), he was Member of the Limpopo Executive Council for Local Government and Housing from 2009 to 2012 under Premier Cassel Mathale. He served two terms as Provincial Secretary of the ANC in Limpopo, from 2011 to 2013 under Mathale and from 2018 to 2022 under Stan Mathabatha. He was formerly the Provincial Secretary of the South African Communist Party in Limpopo from 2008 to 2011 and in 2022 he was elected to a five-year term on the ANC's National Executive Committee.

Life and career

Lekganyane was born on 18 April. He rose to political prominence in the South African Communist Party (SACP) of Limpopo province: he was elected as Provincial Secretary of the SACP's Limpopo branch from August 2008 to March 2011. He was also a member of the African National Congress (ANC), the SACP's close ally, and was a member of the ANC's Provincial Executive Committee in Limpopo by 2011.

Executive Council: 2009–2012

In May 2009, after the 2009 general election, the Premier of Limpopo, Cassel Mathale, appointed Lekganyane to his Executive Council, where he succeeded Maite Nkoana-Mashabane as Member of the Executive Council (MEC) for Local Government and Housing.

While he was in this post, in early March 2011, Lekganyane resigned as SACP Provincial Secretary, saying that his relationship with the party had broken down. According to Lekganyane, the national leadership of the SACP had become overly invested in leadership battles in the ANC, had targeted the Limpopo branch SACP because of the Limpopo branch's close relationship with the provincial ANC Youth League and Julius Malema, and had pressured Lekganyane as Housing MEC to award state contracts to SACP comrades. The SACP publicly disowned these claims as a "campaign of lies, slander and malicious distortions intended to inflict maximum damage and to create confusion within the ranks of the SACP and beyond".

ANC Provincial Secretary: 2011–2013

In December 2011, Lekganyane was elected to the powerful position of Provincial Secretary of the Limpopo ANC. He won the election by about 90 votes and ran on an informal slate aligned to Premier Mathale, who won election as ANC Provincial Chairperson at the same party conference. In order to take up the full-time ANC position, Lekganyane resigned from the Executive Council; he was replaced by Clifford Motsepe in March 2012.

As Provincial Secretary, Lekganyane supported an unsuccessful bid by Kgalema Motlanthe to succeed Jacob Zuma as ANC President at the party's 53rd National Conference in December 2012. The Limpopo ANC ultimately endorsed this position. In the aftermath of the national conference, in March 2013, the national ANC leadership disbanded the Limpopo Provincial Executive Committee, with ANC Secretary-General Gwede Mantashe saying that provincial leaders had displayed "totally un-ANC behaviour and institutionalised factional conduct". Lekganyane's four-year term as Provincial Secretary therefore ended prematurely.

Nonetheless, Lekganyane continued to avow loyalty to the ANC leadership; in June 2013, he publicly disowned his former ally Julius Malema – by then expelled from the ANC – and his new party, the Economic Freedom Fighters, which Lekganyane called a "libertine initiative". Towards the end of 2013, he launched a campaign to be re-elected as ANC Provincial Secretary when the provincial party elected its new leadership. He was named as part of a slate aligned to Dickson Masemola, who intended to contest for the party chairmanship. However, when the provincial elective conference was held in February 2014, both Lekganyane and Masemola withdrew from contention, leaving Nocks Seabi to succeed Lekganyane as Provincial Secretary.

Provincial legislature: 2014–2019

Lekganyane was listed 31st on the ANC's provincial electoral list in the 2014 general election and won a seat in the Limpopo Provincial Legislature. He served as a Member of the Provincial Legislature for a full five-year term, until he declined to stand for re-election in the 2019 general election.

ANC Provincial Secretary: 2018–2022

Towards the end of his term in the legislature, Lekganyane stood again for election to his former post as ANC Provincial Secretary in Limpopo. The SACP opposed Lekganyane's candidacy, saying that he had a poor record as a leader both in the ANC and in the SACP. Nonetheless, at the next provincial elective conference held in Polokwane in June 2018, Lekganyane won the election, beating ANC Youth League Provincial Chairperson Lehlogonolo Masoga with 931 votes to Masoga's 618.

In the aftermath of his election, Lekganyane told the '' Mail & Guardian'' that he believed that the ANC should pursue an anti-corruption campaign ahead of the 2019 general election; in particular, he supported taking action against ANC politicians implicated in the VBS Mutual Bank scandal. Also while secretary, Lekganyane was accused of assaulting another ANC member during a party branch meeting in Polokwane. The altercation took place on 5 June 2021 during an argument about the nomination of candidates to stand for the ANC in the 2021 local government elections; the complainant alleged that Lekganyane assaulted him, "grabbing me by my private parts", and saying "today I'm going to kill you". The complainant opened a case of sexual assault against Lekganyane and his alleged accomplices, who in turn opened a case of malicious property damage against the complainant, whom they alleged had damaged equipment during the scuffle.

Ahead of the expiry of his term as ANC Provincial Secretary in June 2022, Lekganyane ran for re-election, on a slate broadly opposed to Stan Mathabatha, the incumbent ANC Provincial Chairperson and Premier. According to the ''Mail & Guardian'', Lekganyane had lost favour with Mathabatha's camp because of the perception that Lekganyane had betrayed them in order to gain favour with the allies of ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa. Lekganyane's candidacy was initially opposed by Danny Msiza, but Msiza was obliged by the ANC's step-aside policy to withdraw his name from contention. Thus, at the provincial elective conference in June 2022, Lekganyane ran against Reuben Madadzhe, who beat him with 714 votes against his own 451. However, when the ANC held its 55th National Conference in December 2022, Lekganyane was elected to the party's National Executive Committee; by number of votes received, he was ranked 17th of the 80 candidates elected, receiving 1,653 votes across the 4,029 ballots cast in total.

References

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Lekganyane, Soviet
African National Congress politicians
Members of the South African Communist Party
21st-century South African politicians
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people