The North West goes to Cyril Ramaphosa

Whether the ANC provincial conference in North West is postponed or not after bogus delegate tags were found, President Cyril Ramaphosa has secured the province.

Supra Mahumapelo, ally of former president Jacob Zuma, did not get his name on the nominations list and then pulled out of the race.

At the time of going to print, an ANC steering committee was investigating reports that several bogus tags had been discovered after nominations were taken at the North West provincial conference, held in Rustenburg.

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A reliable ANC source at the gathering said the suspected bogus tags had brought the conference to a standstill while the matter was being investigated. But, the ANC member added: “A few bogus tags will not affect the conference or stop the conference from going ahead.”

 A source within the North West ANC said Mahumapelo had received just 70 nominations and that fell far below the threshold to qualify as a candidate. Yesterday Mahumapelo’s supporters tried to nominate him from the provincial conference – which is allowed in terms of the ANC constitution – but he declined the nomination.

Mahumapelo’s political downfall in a province he once ran with a firm grip marked a victory for Ramaphosa even before the election began. The development was the worst news for suspended ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule and Zuma, both avowed Ramaphosa opponents.

When the bogus tags were found, the nominations for the top five were finished and delegates had to wait for the investigation before they could vote.

In the provincial race Nono Maloyi and premier Bushy Maape, both Ramaphosa loyalists, faced each other.

Although Maloyi’s faction produced an online poster advertising him as a Ramaphosa man, some claimed he was linked to Paul Mashatile, who it is believed has ambitions to become ANC president but has not come out publicly about it.

Whoever won between Maape and Maloyi would deliver the province to Ramaphosa and place him in good stead at the national conference. Maape, backed by the provincial ANC veteran’s, youth and women’s leagues, would be a victory for the Ramaphosa faction and a telling defeat for the Zuma camp.

Political analyst Dr Ralph Mathekga said if Ramaphosa defeated the ANC’s radical economic transformation (RET) faction and took over North West, that would give him a reprieve for the party’s national conference.

“The fact that the RETs did well in KwaZulu-Natal did not mean they would so the same in other provinces,” he said.

“I think it’s a good thing for Cyril going into national conference with North West looking like it’s going to be on his side.”

Another expert Professor Andre Duvenhage from North West University’s Potchefstroom campus said while the prospects looked good for Ramaphosa, he believed the Phala Phala issue was still standing on his way.

Many questions remained unanswered around the matter and his opponents were hell-bent on exploiting them.  He said the RET’s victory in KZN meant their Stalingrad strategy fightback was still on.

KZN could be the only province still backing Zuma.

The RET was set to also lose Free State, one of three provinces under its political spell – both leading candidates, Mxolisi Dukwana and Thabo Manyoni, were Ramaphosa supporters.  They could share leadership as provincial chair and deputy.

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