When the Mpumalanga ANC held its special provincial general council last Friday, yours truly never thought it would turn out to be really special.
It turned out to be a surprise, because as the IEC announced the results, it turned out that a majority of the ballot papers had “unity” as a candidate, especially on the presidential candidate. The surprise was further enhanced by Mr David Mabuza declaring that “unity” was the winner from the province. As we stand right now, this means the province has not outright pronounced its preferred presidential candidate.
It is well known that, as promised by Mabuza, of utmost importance to the province is the unity and strengthening of the organisation.
It is also an open secret that Mpumalanga seeks to place Mabuza in the deputy president position.
There is already an outcry against Cyril Ramaphosa allegedly having already pronounced his top six, which excludes Mabuza, while the Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma camp has placed him as deputy. Despite that, his camp is still waiting to negotiate with both parties ahead of the conference.
Mpumalanga, has turned out to be the kingmaker in this conference with 736 delegates; the second-largest province after KwaZulu-Natal. The question arises: is Mabuza sceptical of the NDZ17 camp, or is it a political game?
Some in his camp always feared that his delaying tactics may end up with him attaining no position at all.
Word has it that Mabuza does not care about his position, as long as the province gets a fair share of the spoils. Uppermost on his list of priorities is supposedly the rebuilding and reunification of the ANC. Much as that may be the case, which is commendable, what about the 35 branches’ disputes that are alleged to have not been responded to?
Presidential candidate, Mathews Phosa is seeking a nullification of the nomination process through a court order. Phosa is also calling for the dissolution of the provincial executive committee.
The conference takes place in the next two weeks. One wonders when all these issues will be resolved. Time will tell.
