President Cyril Ramaphosa is set to more than achieve his “audacious” commitment to raise R1.2 trillion of investments in five years. (Waldo Swiegers/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Just hours before ANC leadership nominations were set to commence on Friday, no clear line-up had been decided by any of the warring factions.
Nominations from the floor are the last opportunity for the various groups to usher in their preferred candidates.
Internal ramblings across the board have proved to be a stumbling block for President Cyril Ramaphosa’s faction, particularly over the position of deputy president, with “horse-trading” likely to continue until the final minutes before nomination.
The leadership in the Eastern Cape and Mpumalanga have been holding secret, late-night meetings in order to agree on who should be the consensus deputy president nominee between Oscar Mabuyane and Ronald Lamola.
Eastern Cape regional leaders have told the Mail & Guardian that an agreement was reached in favour of Mabuyane, but the Mpumalanga leadership and those close to Lamola have rejected this claim. Both Mabuyane and Lamola were rejected by Ramaphosa’s lobbyists Mondli Gungubele and Derek Hanekom, who instead had pronounced support for Senzo Mchunu.
While Gungubele is said to still be making attempts to woo the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal to support Mchunu, he has been unable to convince those in power in the province of his views. Gungubele is said to be courting the group linked to secretary general-hopeful Mdumiseni Ntuli to vote for Mchunu in the hope that with KwaZulu-Natal’s numbers, Lamola and Mabuyane would have to surrender their own campaigns.
Ntuli, who received support from the Eastern Cape for the position of secretary general, is said to have lost favour with Ramaphosa’s allies in the province, who could give Fikile Mbalula their vote.
Previously, Gungubele and Hanekom’s attempts to convince the two deputy president hopefuls to ditch their campaign and support Mchunu were thwarted by the two provinces.
Lamola was endorsed by the Mpumalanga provincial executive committee as their preferred candidate for party deputy president, while Mabuyane received a nod from his Eastern Cape province, of which he is party chairperson.
The Mpumalanga provincial leaders and their Eastern Cape counterparts then initiated a dialogue to discuss party positions. The Eastern Cape lobby group attempted to negotiate with KwaZulu-Natal, but this collapsed.
A lobby group including cabinet minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams and Sisisi Tolashe also met with those allied to outgoing treasurer general Paul Mashatile, but could not agree on a candidate for the position of deputy president and treasurer general.
The Eastern Cape provincial leader said the Mashatile grouping could not guarantee any position for the province, resulting in a deadlock.
Meanwhile, Zweli Mkhize’s campaign still needs to convince a stubborn Limpopo province that he is the right man to lead the ANC. Mkhize is allied with suspended secretary general Ace Magashule and the two, together with Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma’s camp are said to be in talks to try and coalesce around a single candidate.
Dlamini Zuma has maintained that she would continue with her campaign despite not having met the required threshold to make it onto the ballot.
KwaZulu-Natal is bringing 866 voting delegates to the conference while Limpopo has 646 delegates and Gauteng and North West have 514 and 344 delegates, respectively.
Mashatile’s support from KwaZulu-Natal for the deputy president position experienced some turbulence because the province felt he had done very little to support its presidential candidate Mkhize. Nevertheless, during its provincial general council KwaZulu-Natal reaffirmed its support for Mashatile.
Chairperson Siboniso Duma said the province was working closely with Limpopo, North West and Gauteng, noting that their numbers would give them the edge to ensure Mkhize would close the conference as the new ANC president.
“The issue of lobbying and advocating for your candidate until the last minute is what we grew up [with] in the organisation’s understanding. Comrade Zweli Mkhize, we still feel that he is the right candidate for KwaZulu-Natal but we are deliberating with a lot of provinces,” Duma said.
He said the province was firm on Mashatile, adding that “if they still rally behind him, we will still support him and consolidate the entire list”.
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