The ANC is a cat that will always land on its feet, says Cyril

President Cyril Ramaphosa is confident the ANC will win the 2019 election comfortably and that former president Jacob Zuma will never leave the party despite rumours he is preparing to launch a new party to oppose the ANC.

In an interview with France24, a state-owned 24-hour news and current affairs TV network based in Paris, Ramaphosa said that despite the ongoing infighting among ANC members, the party would not lose the next elections. He attributed the infighting and factionalism among members and structures to democratising within the party.

“The ANC was going through a democratic process that manifested through the leadership it chose at its December national conference.

“Leading up to the conference, we also had contests among us for the leadership of the ANC, but it all ended successfully with good leadership elections and resolutions made,” he said.

Ramaphosa, who was elected as ANC president in December and installed as the country’s president on February 15 this year, added that infighting was not unique to the ANC as many political parties around the world went through similar leadership contests.

“But the ANC has not split; the ANC is uniting the different approaches that prevailed before the December conference,” he said.

“The ANC always unites when they face a major campaign. I tell people the ANC is like a cat, you throw it from the top floor and it always lands on its feet.

“The ANC will land on its feet … it will win the elections comfortably,” Ramaphosa said.

Regarding Zuma, Ramaphosa said he was still a fully fledged member of the ANC and a blue-blooded cadre of the movement. Zuma grew up in the party and he could not foresee a time when Zuma would turn against the party that made him what he is today.

“So, I have complete faith and confidence that Zuma will remain a member of the ANC until the last day of his life,” said Ramaphosa.

Rumours are flying that Zuma and his supporters in the ANC are planning to launch the African Transformation Congress closer to the 2019 elections.

The party has already been registered and is said to be supported by church leaders who fall outside of the country’s mainstream religious community. Some of these church leaders had started promoting the party, calling on the ANC to keep Zuma and even use him as the face of its campaign if it is to win the 2019 elections.

But many analysts disagreed with that view, saying that if Zuma led the ANC campaign instead of Ramaphosa, the party would lose.

Ramaphosa is optimistic about peace in Africa and a new dawn on the continent. He said efforts to resolve the political impasse in South Sudan and the prospects of democratic elections in Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of the Congo had renewed hope among their people.

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.