ANC55: 5-day elective conference kicks off

It’s all systems go for the ANC national elective conference which will see the party elect the organisation’s president likely to lead the government efforts to find solutions to the country’s power supply crisis and economic challenges.

The five-day elective conference, which is being held at Johannesburg’s Nasrec Expo, is expected to be a highly contested affair, with the supporters of leading candidates likely to pull in different directions on a number of issues, including on the criteria used to screen qualifying candidates.

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While additional candidates could be nominated from the floor, the two candidates who have been given the green light by the party’s elections committee to enter the presidential race are the incumbent, President Cyril Ramaphosa and former health minister, Zweli Mkhize.

Ramaphosa, who in the 2017 ANC national elective conference defeated now Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) minister, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma in the party’s presidential contest, is campaigning on an anti-corruption ticket.

On the other hand, his rival Mkhize has projected himself as a solution to both the ANC and government’s failure to implement policies meant to amongst other things, end corruption, revive the economy and solve the country’s energy crisis.

The majority of ANC branches from across the country had during their conference candidate nomination processes, endorsed Ramaphosa.

Despite early indications that Ramaphosa would emerge victorious at the conference, Mkhize supporters were by Thursday afternoon oozing with confidence.

Conference delegates

Xolile Faku, an ANC conference delegate from the Eastern Cape, said the mood within the party has changed compared to the period when the majority of branches nominated Ramaphosa two months ago.

If you can recall, at that time, the Parliament independent panel had not yet made the negative findings against President Ramaphosa on the Phala Phala farm matter.
Also, some branches at the time were not certain as to whether the ANC NEC (national executive committee) will disqualify comrade Zweli over the Digital Vibes matter.
Now that all the ANC branches and their conference delegates are aware that comrade Zweli has been cleared by the elections committee, they will definitely support him. I’m confident that comrade Zweli will emerge at this conference.

However, Thuso Pule, a conference delegate from the Limpopo province, said Ramaphosa was the strongest of the two presidential candidates.

Voting at the conference would just be an academic exercise, ANC branches have already spoken, they made it clear that they want CR (Cyril Ramaphosa) to serve a second time.
No delegate can go against this clear mandate from the ANC branches.

While Dlamini-Zuma and Tourism minister, Lindiwe Sisulu, have failed to garner enough nominations from ANC branches to qualify as presidential candidates, both could still contest.

ANC conference regulations allow delegates to nominate candidates from the floor.
For Dlamini-Zuma and Sisulu to be able to stand, 25% of the about 4 000 ANC conference delegates would have to endorse them.

Delegates to also vote for organisation’s top six leadership structure

Apart from electing the ANC president, conference delegates will also vote in five other senior party members who will be part of the organisation’s top six leadership structure.

Contenders for the ANC’s top six leadership structure include former Gauteng premier, Paul Mashatile, who will be vying for the party’s deputy president position, former ANC KwaZulu-Natal provincial secretary, Mdumiseni Ntuli, who will be contesting the secretary-general position and former Eastern

Cape premier, Phumulo Masualle, who will be contesting the same position as Ntuli.
Current Limpopo premier, Stanley Mathabatha, will be vying for the ANC national chairperson position alongside the incumbent, Gwede Mantashe.

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Former KZN premier, Sihle Zikalala — who is the province’s current Cogta MEC, will be amongst the 200 ANC members who will be vying for the party’s 80 positions within the national executive committee (NEC) which is the ANC’s highest decision-making structure between conferences.

The ANC conference delegates will also be discussing key policy issues around the country’s
economy, energy crisis and the contentious ANC step-aside policy stipulating that party members facing criminal charges should step down from all positions that they hold within the organisation and government.