Race for ANC presidency set to be bruising

The battle for the soul, not just the presidency of ANC, is underway, as the two main party factions fire early warning
shots to level the playing fields for a bruising campaign of dominance heading towards the party’s December elective conference.

The process began to get more interesting as President Cyril Ramaphosa’s supporters increased the tempo for his
second term campaign. Minister of Justice and Correctional Services and ANC national executive committee (NEC) member Ronald Lamola has become the second top party leader to give his support of a second term for
Ramaphosa as ANC president after Limpopo premier Stanley Mathabatha.

That has set the tone for the upcoming battle for the number one spot at the helm of Africa’s oldest liberation movement, which boasted the likes of Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo and chief Albert Luthuli as its former presidents.

The situation was promising to be messier than his previous campaign because Ramaphosa’s opponents are
planning to deprive him of a second term. His lieutenants were ready to stop the plotting with a counter attack. The campaigns by both sides started early because another ANC NEC member, Tourism Minister Lindiwe Sisulu, put her name into the hat last week.

She launched a muted campaign with the anti-judiciary message often pronounced by the radical economic transformation (RET) faction within the governing party. Sisulu particularly lambasted the constitution, black judges, the rule of law and the ANC’s failure to address black poverty.

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She received flak within the ANC, as well as from the opposition and the judiciary itself, with some calling on
Ramaphosa to fire Sisulu as minister. Sisulu made no secret about her intention to challenge Ramaphosa for the ANC presidency for the second time.

She and six others lost the last race to Ramaphosa, who beat close contender Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma by a tiny margin. Lamola’s public support for Ramaphosa’s return was no surprise. He had been on the president’s side from his tenure as deputy president and acting president of the ANC Youth League.

He was among those who marched to Luthuli House to call on former president Jacob Zuma to step down following
the Nkandla saga in 2016. In a recent interview with The Citizen, Lamola’s said his politics were inspired by leaders like Mandela and Ramaphosa in the 1990s, which prompted him to participate in student and youth politics at a young age. Some identified him as a future ANC president.

Ramaphosa’s deputy David Mabuza remained a dark horse who could spring a surprise in December, as he did at Nasrec. But political analyst Gakwi Mashego said Mabuza’s support in Mpumalanga had been weakened by infighting among his former fellow ANC provincial executive committee members.