Pat Matosa

Petrus Zanemvula "Pat" Matosa is a South African politician from the Free State. He represented the African National Congress (ANC) in the National Assembly from 1997 to 1999 and before that in the Free State Provincial Legislature from 1994 to 1997. His career as a public representative was cut short when he was convicted of the attempted murder of a traffic cop, though his conviction was later overturned.

Matosa was the Provincial Chairperson of the Free State ANC from 1994 to 1997 and later served as its Provincial Secretary from 2002 to 2005 and as Deputy Provincial Chairperson from 2005 to 2008. For much of that period, he was viewed as a close ally of Ace Magashule. During apartheid, he spent several years on Robben Island for his activities with Umkhonto we Sizwe.

Early life and activism Matosa was born in rural Rouxville in the former Orange Free State. He was a member of Umkhonto we Sizwe in the 1980s, at the height of apartheid, and in 1986 he was sentenced to 14 years' imprisonment for his role in an explosion at Phehello Secondary School in Odendaalsrus. Later, at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, he additionally sought and received amnesty for his role in a 1985 attack on an ice rink in Welkom.

He was released from Robben Island early, in the early 1990s, and became a regional leader of the ANC, recently unbanned by the government, in the Northern Free State.

Post-apartheid political career

ANC Provincial Chairperson: 1994–1996 After South Africa's first post-apartheid elections in 1994, Matosa was elected to an ANC seat in the new Free State Provincial Legislature. He had won that position, with Magashule's support, in a "surprise challenge" to Mosiuoa Lekota, who was the favoured candidate of the ANC's national leadership. Matosa won comfortably, receiving 263 votes against Lekota's 190; of the 81 local party branches in the region, Matosa was supported by 33, Lekota by 22, and Magashule by 26.

However, Lekota remained Premier of the Free State, which led, over the next few years, to a sustained power struggle between Lekota and his supporters, primarily from the southern Free State and powerful in the provincial government; and Matosa, Magashule, and their supporters, primarily from the northern Free State and powerful in the provincial party. Matosa consistently argued that the party had given Lekota his mandate to lead and that he should therefore consult the party before exercising his constitutional powers. the national party intervened again: in November 1996, it disbanded Matosa's leadership corps, pending fresh leadership elections, and announced that Matosa would leave his seat in the provincial legislature to join the National Assembly. Several weeks later, the national party additionally announced that Matosa had agreed that he would not run for re-election as ANC Provincial Chairperson at the next provincial elective conference, nor would Magashule or Lekota run.

Attempted murder trial Matosa served in the National Assembly until the next general election in 1999. During that time, he was charged with attempted murder in connection with an incident that had occurred near Theunissen on 3 June 1996. His colleague Vax Mayekiso had been driving him from Welkom to Bloemfontein and attempted to overtake another vehicle illegally; the driver of the other vehicle was a traffic cop and pulled Mayekiso over. According to the officer, he removed Mayekiso's car keys from the engine after Mayekiso refused to produce his driving license and threatened the officer with dismissal. Mayekiso then grabbed and began to throttle the officer, upon which Matosa cocked his 9mm pistol, held it to the officer's head, and pulled the trigger three times. The traffic cop was largely unharmed, because the gun was jammed. In their defence, Matosa and Mayekiso said that the cop had been aggressive and confrontational and had addressed them in Afrikaans, a language in which they were not fluent. but the party ultimately gave in to public pressure and removed Matosa from its party list in the 1999 general election: until then, he had been ranked first on the provincial-to-national list for the Free State. Matosa and Magashule were viewed as having collaborated to win the election over incumbent Premier Winkie Direko, an office he held until the next provincial elective conference in 2008.

During that time, in the run-up to the ANC's 52nd National Conference, Matosa supported Tokyo Sexwale's unsuccessful campaign to be elected as ANC president. Sexwale sought to present himself as a compromise candidate amid the two frontrunners, incumbent Thabo Mbeki and his deputy Jacob Zuma. Matosa ran the Free State wing of Sexwale's campaign.

Matosa's term as Deputy Provincial Chairperson ended in July 2008. As his relationship with Magashule worsened, he was considered a possible candidate to challenge Magashule for the provincial chairmanship, but he did not ultimately stand.