ANC in bid to find agreement on succession

Moves are afoot within the ANC to reach a compromise on leadership prior to the national elective conference in December in the interests of party unity.

The ANC is grappling with how to resolve the impasse on Jacob Zuma’s successor as ANC president. According to ANC national executive committee member Lindiwe Zulu, provincial chairpersons and secretaries are in discussions about leadership arrangements.

“It would be good if we go to the national conference without tensions on leadership. If there is a way to deal with these issues of leadership challenges we have to resolve them before December so we can have a smooth conference,” Zulu said.

This would help to avoid further polarisation of members and close the gap between the ANC and its allies, the SA Communist Party and the Congress of SA Trade Unions.

For some time now, the ANC has been divided into two factions: one supports Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa and the other backs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma as the future leader of the party and the country.

Mathews Phosa, Lindiwe Sisulu and Jeff Radebe were also being touted for the position in some quarters.

KwaZulu-Natal chairperson Sihle Zikalala proposed at the current national policy conference that when either Ramaphosa or Dlamini-Zuma win in December, the losing candidate should take the deputy president post.

With this arrangement, if Ramaphosa wins, Dlamini-Zuma takes the deputy portfolio for the ANC this year and the country in 2019, following the old succession tradition where the deputy president automatically becomes the next president.

An ANC source said an agreement might even be reached for Ramaphosa to simply take over from Zuma without being contested.

The former African Union Commission chairperson would then become his deputy.

Later Dlamini-Zuma would follow suit and become the first female president of the ANC and the country.

“If such a compromise is agreed it would keep the ANC united for years to come. We are sick of this infighting,” the source said.

But this was unlikely to be accepted by some in the ANC’s youth and women’s league, as well as the so-called Premier League provinces.

Another quandary facing the ruling party was how it would handle the succession if Zuma is removed through a vote of no confidence.