President Cyril Ramaphosa is seen with ANC Women's League former president Bathabile Dlamini and other members during an event themed 'A conversation with the President' on August 13, 2019 in Johannesburg, South Africa. (Photo by Gallo Images/Sowetan/Alon Skuy)
With the ANC leadership battle heating up, former ANC Women League (ANCWL) president Bathabile Dlamini, has described President Cyril Ramaphosa as an “outsider”.
Ramaphosa, who will be seeking re-election as ANC president at the party’s December national elective conference, will be slugging it out with former health minister, Zweli Mkhize, who will be vying for the party’s presidency at the gathering.
Addressing Mkhize’s supporters during the Oliver Tambo Memorial Lecture held at the Pietermaritzburg City Hall on Saturday, Dlamini said someone from the ANC’s former military wing, Mkhonto weSizwe (MK) should have been elected ANC deputy president at the party’s 2012 national elective conference which elected Ramaphosa as the then ANC president, Jacob Zuma’s deputy.
They should have elected a soldier, and yet they went to fetch someone from outside. That person is now causing problems for us.
I blame soldiers like you Khabazela (Mkhize). You should have stepped forward and claimed that position.
During the ANC 2012 elective conference held in Mangaung in the Free State, Zuma’s supporters, who at the time were a dominant force within the party, voted for Ramaphosa to take over from Kgalema Motlanthe, who has been the ANC deputy president from 2007 to 2012.
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The Zuma supporters resolved to back Ramaphosa after Motlanthe made himself available to challenge Zuma, who at the time was popular within the ANC.
Without mentioning Ramaphosa by name, Dlamini said there were ANC leaders who after being elected by the party’s branches, went on to collude with the “whites”.
They receive a mandate from ANC branches but when there are issues within the country which need to be dealt with, they consult white people, and not the ANC structures which elected them.
If leadership changes did not happen at the upcoming ANC elective conference, Dlamini said, the dominance of white people in the country’s economic sector will never be broken.
That conference will be a make-or-break.
If we lose, we will be oppressed forever.
Mkhize is backed by the ANC KwaZulu-Natal provincial executive committee (PEC).
Amongst other candidates, the ANC PEC is also supporting former Gauteng premier, Paul Mashatile, who is vying for the ANC deputy president position and former Eastern Cape premier, Phumulo Masualle, who will be contesting the party’s secretary-general position.
There are currently perceptions within some ANC branches in KZN that Mashatile is more loyal to Ramaphosa than to Mkhize.
Dlamini said all the candidates in the Mkhize slate had been summoned to KZN to demonstrate their support for the province’s resolution to back the former health minister.
They were supposed to be at this event but they are not… I think it is largely due to a mix-up in dates.
However, we have invited them for the upcoming event. If they don’t pitch, then we know where they stand.
ANC provincial spokesperson, Mafika Mndebele, confirmed that some ANC branches have raised concerns about Mashatile’s inclusion in the Mkhize slate.
As the ANC provincial leadership, we will hold meetings with the regions in question and then take a resolution based on the outcome of those discussions.
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