Outgoing ANC national spokesperson Pule Mabe briefing the media at the governing party's 55th national conference at the Johannesburg Expo Centre. Picture: Nigel Sibanda/The Citizen
Outgoing ANC national spokesperson Pule Mabe says he doesn’t take his loss of the governing party’s treasurer-general position personally.
Mabe was defeated by Gwen Ramokgopa for the treasurer-general position by 1 809 votes after he received 1 652 votes.
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“I have never taken the question of standing for positions of responsibility in the ANC personally. I don’t invest emotions in campaigns.
“The leadership of the ANC will come and go. The ANC will remain,” said Mabe at a media briefing in Nasrec, south of Johannesburg.
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The results of the ANC’s top seven national officials were announced on Monday morning at the party’s 55th national conference at the Johannesburg Expo Centre.
President Cyril Ramaphosa was re-elected for a second term by a very large margin after receiving 2 476.
His challenger for the ANC presidency, former health minister Zweli Mkhize, received 1 897 votes.
The other elected top seven officials included Paul Mashatile as ANC deputy president and Fikile Mbalula as the party’s secretary-general.
Nomvula Mokonyane and Maropene Ramokgopa were elected the first deputy secretary general and second deputy secretary general, respectively.
Gwede Mantashe was re-elected as the ANC’s national chair with 2 062 votes.
While ANC Ekurhuleni regional chairperson Mzwandile Masina withdrew from contesting the treasurer-general post and threw his support behind Mabe – the outgoing ANC spokesperson doesn’t think it was a given that Masina’s supporters would back him.
Masina received 281 votes.
“For me personally, it was never about merging numbers… when we see the results of the elections, we see numbers.
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“It doesn’t mean those that did not vote for Masina would have voted for me. Numbers don’t have names of people [who voted for us] next to them,” said Mabe.
He denied that he had the Mkhize faction behind his election campaign.
Mabe added he would rally behind the new top seven leadership led by Ramaphosa, despite supporting Mkhize for ANC president.
“We have to rally behind this leadership,” said Mabe.
Meanwhile, Mabe added that the ANC will nominate and vote for members of its national executive committee (NEC), which is the party’s highest decision-making body, in between conferences.
The previous NEC was disbanded just before the announcement of the top seven election results.
“We are still committed to ensuring that this conference is a resounding success, doesn’t collapse in our hands [and] that we maintain the unity of the rest of our members and delegates,” he said.
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