Gangster State

and his faction were hard at work laying the foundation for their
eventual ousting of the Lekota bloc.
Magashule had grasped early on that ascendancy within the ANC had
little to do with winning the support of the general population. Instead,
the road to the top was built on the very foundation of the
organisation’s power structure, namely its branches. ‘If you control
enough branches, you control a region,’ explained a source who
worked with Magashule in the early 1990 s. ‘If you control enough
regions, you control a province. And if you control a province, you get
a seat at the big table.’
The northern Free State faction’s proficiency in establishing branches
has been documented by historians and political commentators.
‘During this period the ANC in the province was dominated by
northerners because of the party’s development in the north in as far as
branches were concerned,’ historian Chitja Twala noted. ‘The situation
was expected to change after 1994 , when the ANC was seen expanding
its support in Thaba Nchu [outside Bloemfontein] where it had little
support.’^1
As the April 1994 election drew near, the northern faction’s branch-
building started yielding results. Magashule, and not Lekota, now
enjoyed the number-one spot on the ANC’s provincial list. This should
have secured him the position of premier, but after the election, the
national leadership appointed Lekota instead.
Although premiers are technically voted into power by each province’s
own legislature, the ANC’s NEC decides who the candidates for the job
will be. At the party’s 2007 national conference, the rules were altered
to allow provinces to have a bigger say in the appointment of premiers.
Since 2007 , each PEC may submit the names of three ‘cadres’ for the