Premier of the Eastern Cape: 2014–2019
After the May 2014 general election, the ANC announced that it would nominate Masualle to succeed Kiviet as Eastern Cape Premier. He was sworn in on 21 May. In his maiden State of the Province Address in Bhisho in June, Masualle outlined seven strategic priorities for his administration, including "radical socioeconomic transformation", rural development, and food security. He said that he would pursue rapid industrialisation in the Eastern Cape, particularly through integration with the mining industry and by exploiting South Africa's diversification into nuclear power and shale gas. Infrastructural priorities included the completion of the Mthatha Airport terminal building by March 2015.
A major scandal of Masualle's tenure concerned the alleged misuse of public funds set aside for Nelson Mandela's funeral, held in 2013 while Masualle was finance MEC. R250,000 of the funeral funds had been deposited into Masualle's personal bank account. Masualle said that a department official had deposited the money into his account, and that he had instructed the department to reverse the transaction immediately upon learning of it. However, Athol Trollip of the opposition Democratic Alliance said that he would continue to press for investigations into Masualle's conduct.
Masualle stood for a third term as ANC provincial chairperson at the party's next elective conference in October 2017, but he was challenged by the outgoing provincial secretary, Oscar Mabuyane. When the provincial conference opened in October 2017, a plenary session devolved into violence in which several people were injured by flying chairs; the conference subsequently became popularly known as the "festival of chairs". After the brawl, only 55% of the delegates remained in the hall, most of them supporters of Mabuyane, and Masualle was not available to formally accept or decline his nomination in the election. Masualle thus received only seven votes, against Mabuyane's 931; Mabuyane won the chairmanship and his supporters took most of the seats on the Provincial Executive Committee.
In subsequent months, Masualle's supporters disputed the election result, but the ANC National Executive Committee rejected a recommendation – the outcome of an internal inquiry by S'bu Ndebele – to re-run the election. Instead, the party opted for a "political solution" that would build "unity" in the provincial party. In June 2018, the Johannesburg High Court dismissed an attempt by Masualle's supporters to have the election outcomes declared invalid.
Despite his defeat in the provincial ANC, and despite reports that Zuma supporters were likely to lose popularity in the SACP, Masualle was re-elected to the SACP Central Committee in July 2017. In December 2017, at the ANC's 54th National Conference at Nasrec, Masualle was viewed as a backer of losing presidential candidate Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, though the Mail & Guardian said that he was also "comfortable" with Zweli Mkhize's presidential bid. Masualle later said that he did not see himself aligned to any single leader, arguing, "I really exercise my own mind to what I see, take a view and when I've taken that view, I really go for it".
He was considered to be a possible candidate to stand for the deputy secretary-general position on Dlamini-Zuma's slate. Instead, he was re-elected as an ordinary member of the National Executive Committee, ranked 54th by popularity. He was appointed to chair the subcommittee on legislature and governance.
In the aftermath of Masualle's exit from the ANC provincial chairmanship, he came under increasing pressure from the newly elected party leadership, which mounted after Masualle's 2018 State of the Province Address. In the aftermath of the speech, the Mabuyane-led Provincial Executive Committee apparently approached the National Executive Committee with a recommendation to remove Masualle as Premier and replace him with Mabuyane. Zuma's supporters argued that this campaign was one example of a broader purge being pursued by supporters of newly elected President Cyril Ramaphosa. Masualle told City Press that he was prepared to step down, but only on the instructions of the national party, not the provincial party. In the same interview, he expressed pride in his administration's economic, infrastructural, and agricultural accomplishments; asked to grade his performance out of 10, he said he would give himself "Anything above seven".
Although its recommendation to remove Masualle was rejected, the Provincial Executive Committee continued to press for changes in Masualle's Executive Council – in particular for the dismissal of Sakhumzi Somyo, Mlibo Qoboshiyane, Thandiswa Marawu, and Nancy Sihlwayi – and threatened to pass a motion of no confidence of Masualle in the legislature if he did not comply. In May 2018, following a meeting at Luthuli House between Masualle, the provincial party, and ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule, Masualle reportedly agreed to effect the reshuffle in exchange for being allowed to complete his term as Premier. He announced the reshuffle later the same week, with a spokesperson saying that the changes followed from the "new political discourse" in the province and would allow "for a smooth transition" ahead of the May 2019 general election.
Masualle subsequently began to prepare for the expiry of his term in the Premier's office. After delivering his final State of the Province Address in February 2019, he said that his premiership was "an experience I will cherish all my life"; he also said that he was not certain what he would do next. Pursuant to the 2019 election, Mabuyane succeeded him as Premier.
