Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma ‘doesn’t have RET faction’s support’

According to reports, former president Jacob Zuma lobbied senior members of the radical economic transformation (RET) faction to support the candidature of Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.

Key supporters of Zuma within the ANC’s RET faction have rejected the proposal to nominate Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Dlamini-Zuma as the party’s presidential candidate.

According to reports, Zuma lobbied senior members of the RET faction to support the candidature of Dlamini-Zuma in the upcoming ANC national elective conference in December.

However, The Witness has since established that a significant number of the faction’s members rejected her.

An ANC national executive committee member aligned to the RET faction, said Dlamini-Zuma is “definitely not the RET’s preferred candidate”.

“While the majority of the comrades remain resolute in their support for [former] president Zuma, they don’t agree with him on the matter around who should be the face of the RET faction going into the national conference.

The overwhelming view within the RET is that the current political climate calls for a militant, vocal and outspoken candidate.

“We don’t believe that comrade NDZ [Nkosazana D l a m i n i – Z u m a ] meets those requirements,” he said.

Former uMkhonto weSizwe Military Veterans Association spokesperson Carl Niehaus – who is one of the prominent members of the ANC RET faction and also a key Zuma supporter – said the matters around candidates for the party’s December elective conference are yet to be finalised.

“The public would be informed once a decision has been made,” he said.

In the build-up to the 2017 conference, Dlamini-Zuma – who was supported by the ANC KwaZulu-Natal provincial executive council (PEC) – was endorsed by the province’s 433 branches, while only 193 ANC KZN branches endorsed President Cyril Ramaphosa.

However, this time around, the ANC PEC – which is yet to endorse either Dlamini-Zuma or any other candidate – says it will support the candidate who will receive the most votes from the ANC branch nomination process that is now under way in the province.

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