Zuma’s ANC power conundrum

President Jacob Zuma has moved to paper over cracks in the organisation by proposing a solution to the leadership succession fight which, he hopes, will satisfy the warring factions.

Zuma vowed to delegates at the conclusion of the organisation’s ANC National Policy Conference (NPC) yesterday that he would actively lobby party structures for the loser of the leadership contest to automatically assume the deputy presidency of the party.

“If needs be I can go from province to province to motivate this proposal.

“Lobbying should be comradely, comrades should not lobby as if there is no tomorrow,” Zuma said.

In all likelihood and if Zuma’s wish is granted, Cyril Ramaphosa and Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma are guaranteed the first two positions of the party presidency.

This, he said, would be done in the interest of uniting the ANC and to end factionalism. The same would apply to the proposed second deputy president.

This position was likely to go to any of the other candidates who contested the presidency but received the third-highest votes in the poll. In future, the party would have three deputy secretaries-general and the NEC number dropped from 80 to 60.

In his closing address on the last day of the conference held at Nasrec Expo Centre south of Johannesburg, Zuma made an impassioned plea to the conference delegates to strive to end factionalism and the politics of slates because they were killing the ANC.

“We all feel very strongly that factionalism is not good for the ANC and therefore not good for the country,” he said.

There was a clear rejection of Zuma’s proposal from certain delegates who jeered as he explained how the future leadership contest of the party should take place.

Zuma, along with KwaZulu-Natal ANC chairman Sihle Zikalala, pitched the idea during the policy conference.

He also took time while on the podium to make an impassioned plea to delegates to discuss his proposal.

The policy conference saw both Zuma’s and Ramaphosa’s supporters take knocks during commission discussions.

Insiders told The Citizen that certain commissions, where heated issues on land and economic transformation were discussed, were “flooded” by Zuma supporters who, in the end, were defeated.

“You could see they came there with a hard line on certain issues such as the ownership of the Reserve Bank, but they had no input to make. That’s why they conceded,” said an NEC member.

Another senior ANC politician explained how Mzwanele Manyi – a known Gupta and Zuma supporter – saw his idea of scrapping the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) shot down.

The PFMA ensures the accountability of public officials, especially in the issuing of state tenders.

On the Reserve Bank, ANC NEC member Enoch Godongwana explained that the economic transformation committee proposed that the state become the sole owner of the central bank.

It currently has 650 private shareholders who don’t have powers to determine the direction the bank takes on fiscal policy matters. – news@citizen.co.za