Bathabile Dlamini ‘desperate’ about Dlamini-Zuma’s campaign – report

A report in City Press on Sunday quotes sources in the ANC Women’s League who have interpreted league president Bathabile Dlamini’s allegedly “sneaked” discussion on who should succeed President Jacob Zuma at the ANCWL’s national executive committee [NEC] meeting two weeks ago as a “desperate” move by their president.

The paper reports that “those opposed to the discussion suspected that ‘the [early] pronouncement [[of Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma as the league’s presidential candidate]] was rushed partly to counter [ANC chairperson] Baleka Mbete’s campaign swiftly and ensure that there is only one woman president in the minds of the structures of the ANC'”.

The party’s treasurer, Zweli Mkhize, has also reportedly switched sides to support the campaign of Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, in the hopes of becoming deputy president, and he has the potential to erode Dlamini-Zuma’s support in KwaZulu-Natal, yet another concern for Dlamini.

There were reportedly many women at the league’s NEC meeting who had wanted more discussion around who their league’s preferred candidate should be, and they have warned that the rushed pronouncement, which has allegedly come without consensus building, could “backfire at branch level”.

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The NEC meeting had apparently also been unusual, as it pre-empted meetings by the party’s national working committee and top six, and the early pronouncement failed to heed a directive from the party’s national leaders to build consensus before making announcements, instead of “relying on the politics of slates”.

The league’s secretary-general, Meokgo Matuba, however, told the paper that Dlamini-Zuma’s campaign was strong, she had “a lot of support” and that she was not her “ex-husband’s [Jacob Zuma’s] project”, with a “record [that] speaks for itself”.

The ANC Youth League’s about-turn on Dlamini-Zuma will also be a cause for concern for the ANCWL, and it is understood to be caused by Dlamini-Zuma’s reported reluctance to accept either Free State Premier Ace Magashule or Mpumalanga Premier David Mabuza as her running mates for deputy president.

The youth league’s leader, Collen Maine, has said that their choice for president would send “shockwaves” through the ANC, and it is generally thought that they are looking to pronounce on Magashule as their preferred man.