Final countdown, who will it be: Cyril or Nkosazana?
The battle lines have been drawn, party members have made their declarations on who they prefer as the next ANC leader, and quite possibly the country's next president.
This Saturday the highly anticipated ANC National Elective Conference commences until 20 December in Gauteng where the next incumbent and members of the National Executive Committee (NEC) will be elected.
Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma is pinned against Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa as the leading presidential candidate and their coterie’s loyalties will be put to the test with their secret votes. Ramaphosa was nominated for the presidency of the ANC by 1 862 branches, while 1 309 backed his main rival, Dlamini-Zuma.
The branches will account for 90% of the 5 240 voting delegates while the rest will come from the party’s leadership structures and youth, women and military veterans leagues. While the branch nomination numbers can be seen as the best available indicator of who’s likely to win, they aren’t conclusive as some of the bigger branches can have more than one delegate.
Limpopo ANC Chairperson, Chupu Stanley Mathabatha, and his deputy, Jerry Ndou, are said to support Ramaphosa, while the party’s Provincial Secretary, Nocks Seabi and Deputy Secretary, Makoma Makhurupetje are in the Dlamini-Zuma camp.
Limpopo put its weight behind Ramaphosa at the Provincial General Council (PGC) as the preferred presidential candidate. He received a total of 391 votes against Dlamini-Zuma’s 104.
“We told them Ramaphosa is a household name in Limpopo. We walloped them in the province and we will show them in Johannesburg,” said Masilu Maloko, Chairperson of the Phusela branch of the ANC in Tzaneen. Mathabatha reiterated Limpopo would go to the national conference with one mandate, united over Ramaphosa.
He called for peace within the ANC saying factionalism was a cancer destroying the party. Meanwhile, the PGC in KZN favoured Dlamini-Zuma, and Mpumalanga Provincial Chairperson, David Mabuza respectively for president and deputy president.
