The ANC in KwaZulu-Natal leadership want to come out in support of Cyril President Ramaphosa for a second term at the party’s national conference in December, according to several sources in the provincial leadership committee.
“The reality is if Ramaphosa is not the ANC’s candidate, the party will lose elections,” said one provincial executive committee source, whose comments were echoed by several others who also sounded a caveat that the only stumbling block to Ramaphosa’s re-election are regional and provincial conferences that are happening around the country.
KwaZulu-Natal is the ANC’s largest provincial voting block and the province is expected to be tightly contested before the national leadership contest in December with early indications showing that Ramaphosa is likely to be up against former health minister Zweli Mkhize, who appears to be enjoying widespread support from branches in the province.
Business Day reported earlier this month that Mkhize, who is under investigation by the Special Investigating Unit after his department irregularly awarded Covid-19-related contracts to a communications company controlled by his former associates, is also a possible candidate to be chosen as a contender for the ANC presidency.
Alongside receiving the public support of KwaXimba, one of the biggest branches in the eThekwini region, Mkhize is also said to enjoy growing support from branches in the eThekwini (Durban) and Musa Dladla (Richards Bay) regions, where the ANC faction close to former president Jacob Zuma and former mayor Zandile Gumede is in the majority. Support for Mkhize in his home region, Moses Mabhida in Pietermaritzburg, is also said to be growing.
Another possible contender could be Lindiwe Sisulu, whose harsh criticism of the constitution struck a chord with supporters of a former Zuma’s vaguely defined radical economic transformation and drew public rebuke from the then-acting chief justice Raymond Zondo.
Other provinces packing huge voting powers and are due to hold leadership conferences are the Eastern Cape and Gauteng.
The outcomes of those meetings could affect Ramaphosa’s fate. However, ANC leaders in KwaZulu-Natal are adamant that if the ANC elected anyone one other than Ramaphosa it would jeopardise the party’s fate in the 2024 general elections.
“We could not only lose Gauteng, but also lose in this province. Big townships in Durban did not come out for the ANC in last year’s (local government) elections,” another ANC leader in KwaZulu-Natal said.
Ramaphosa’s supporters have credited him with helping the ANC keeping voters on its side after his campaign in 2017 pledged to crackdown on corruption that had become endemic under his predecessor, Zuma, and to introduce structural reforms that boost growth in an economy where one in three adults is without a job.
But some of his critics say he has failed to quickly implement economic reforms, crack down on graft, and carry out some of the key ANC conference resolutions including nationalisation of the SA Reserve Bank and pushing through the expropriation of land without compensation.
While branches and regions send voting delegates to the ANC’s national elective conference, only provinces nominate candidates. A candidate would require the nomination from two provinces or 25% on the floor at conference to make it onto a ballot.
At conferences, provinces make up the bulk of voting delegates and the ANC’s leagues make up the rest, while the party’s alliance partners Cosatu and the SA Communist Party have speaking but not voting rights.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.