Carl Niehaus resigned a few days after the ANC national disciplinary committee resolved to expel him from the party.
Sunday.
We’re on day three of the ANC’s 55th national conference, a little more than half-way through the proceedings — if not the programme — and a step closer to knowing who is going to run the governing party, and the country, for the next five years.
Three days in and Carl Niehaus hasn’t made it past the Sasol garage on the corner of Rand Show Road where the police cordon around Nasrec starts.
All indications are that Zeerust’s Che Guevara won’t get any closer to the conference — let alone the national executive committee (NEC) — and will spend the full five days shooting selfies with the rest of the outside delegates.
Fair enough.
Inside the conference, voting for the top officials has started and results are expected by the evening, in theory, but this is a conference of the ANC where strange things can — and do — happen.
Three days into an ANC national conference is a special place, physically and mentally.
By this time, we’re so deeply immersed in the world of credentials, nominations, points of order and ANC horse-trading that life outside is pretty much forgotten — a thing of the past and the future — something to forget about for now and to turn one’s attention to on Tuesday, when the new president closes the conference.
We’re starting to speak Khongolese ourselves — lots of comrades, chiefs and leaderships being thrown around — and are looking increasingly like deployed cadres as the days go by.
We’ve all developed curvature of the spine from backpacking gear for three days; carpal tunnel syndrome from hammering away at the keyboard without a break and weird intestinal issues from the pap-heavy diet in the media centre canteen.
It is what it is.
With nominations for the top seven positions closed in the early hours of the morning, we’re over the hump — timewise at least — and we’ve gotten to what, if we are to be honest, most of us have come here for.
It was touch-and-go for a while.
Outgoing national chairperson Gwede Mantashe had his hands full trying to keep the comrades in line since the opening minutes of the conference, with KwaZulu-Natal in particular dishing out chest pains from the floor.
Fortunately the former National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) general secretary has been enforcing order from the podium since his days as a rock driller — word has it he collapsed his fair share of conferences and congresses himself — and got the conference over the line with the adoption of credentials on Saturday evening.
It’s time for all the talking of the past year — the past five years actually — to stop and the real business of the conference to take place: the battle for the ANC presidency and the national officials — the top six which is now the top seven — is now upon us.
For all the talk of Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma making a second bid for the ANC presidency and of Lindiwe SIsulu suddenly developing a constituency among the party’s branches,it was always going to come down to Cyri Ramaphosa versus Zweli Mkhize.
Neither of the would-be presidents made it onto the ballot during the branch general meeting phase, so it was obvious that both Sisulu and Dlamini Zuma were going to choke.
Neither carried the support of any of the ANC’s nine provinces — despite former president Jacob Zuma instructing the KwaZulu-Natal leadership to back Dlamini Zuma’s campaign — the same weakness which forced Mkhize to collapse his presidential campaign five years ago.
It showed.
On the night, Dlamini Zuma declined nomination and Sisulu couldn’t even muster enough branches to secure a nomination to treasurer, let alone president, so it’s Phala Phala versus Digital Vibes for the ANC’s top post.
Ankole versus Nguni.
The Buffalo versus the Undertaker.
Mkhize has clearly learned from his 2017 mistakes, wrapping up KwaZulu-Natal and pockets of support elsewhere and earning himself the endorsement of a third of the branches by the time the BGM results were consolidated.
Since then Khabazela has had the time to work the regions and provinces — not having a day job can have its positives, after all — and has been able to number the numbers to the point where it’s anybody’s presidency.
He’s also managed to capitalise on the president’s penchant for cash in the couch and deflect the Digital Vibes issue to the point where — to the ANC at least — it’s no longer an issue.
For now.
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