The African National Congress’ (ANC’s) “inner cabinet”, the national working committee, has endorsed President Thabo Mbeki’s proposed internal commission of inquiry into an alleged conspiracy against Jacob Zuma. The decision, taken at a meeting on Monday night, raises the stakes for Friday’s meeting of the ANC’s powerful national executive committee (NEC).

The ANC said the working committee had “agreed in principle with the proposal”. The decision, while a boost for Mbeki, was expected as its members are well-known Mbeki confidantes.

It throws down the gauntlet to the ANC’s alliance partners, who have so far rejected the inquiry.

Analysts said the real test for Mbeki’s position would come at the more representative NEC, where Zuma is believed to have many sympathisers.

ANC spokesman Smuts Ngonyama said setting up a commission would help clear the air.

But Ngonyama said the view taken by the working committee was not yet an official ANC view as the matter would still have to be taken to the party’s “higher structures”, including its NEC.

Steven Friedman, political analyst at the Centre for Policy Studies, said it was likely Mbeki would get the NEC to endorse the idea of a commission.

“But the problem is that a commission solves nothing. If they found a process where everyone comes out of it saying ‘this was a credible process and we accept its findings’, that might be workable.

“But you can’t have a process that’s not supported by the very people alleging a conspiracy.”

Mbeki may face an uphill battle at the NEC, which has more than 60 members. A source said “powerful and independent” members of the NEC opposed the way the Zuma matter had been handled, and would resist a commission to “exonerate” Mbeki.

Last week the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) said it would oppose a commission that probed only the Zuma allegations.

Cosatu president Willie Madisha said the federation favoured a wider look at why its alliance with the ANC and the South African Communist Party (SACP) was “dysfunctional”.

Cosatu challenged Mbeki to garner support for the commission proposal inside the ANC instead of presenting the allies with his own “personal proposal”.

SACP general secretary Blade Nzimande has welcomed the ANC’s commitment to further discussion of the Zuma impasse and other alliance issues.

Other alliance leaders said it was a “positive sign” that the national working committee had agreed in principle without committing the party to the commission route, suggesting there was room for talks, and that agreement could still be reached.

With acknowledgments to Vukani Mde and Business Day.