President Thabo Mbeki’s chances of staying on as leader of South Africa’s ruling party improved on Thursday when the party said the biggest share of regional votes in a leadership contest would go to his stronghold.
Mbeki, barred from seeking re-election as national president in 2009, has signalled he intends to stand for a third term as African National Congress (ANC) leader at a party congress in December, despite opposition from many rank-and-file activists.
Mbeki’s main rival is ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma, who is more left wing and finds little favour from the pro-business wing of the party that has ruled Africa’s economic powerhouse largely unopposed since the end of the apartheid era in 1994.
Pending completion of a lengthy and controversial audit of ANC branches, there had been widespread uncertainty over how many votes at the leadership contest would go to branches in South Africa’s nine regions.
The party announced on Thursday that 906 votes, almost 25% of the total 3 675, would go to delegates from Eastern Cape, homeland of Mbeki and his predecessor, Nelson Mandela. Both are ethnic Xhosa.
Zuma is an ethnic Zulu from KwaZulu-Natal province, which will send only 608 delegates to the conference.
Some Zuma supporters charge that ANC officials undercounted branches there in a bid to deny the charismatic politician leadership of the party, which traditionally leads to the national presidency.
The party has repeatedly dismissed the charge.
Manoeuvring
The ANC also said on Thursday that an additional 400 votes will be assigned to members of its national executive committee, women’s league and other bodies.
”This audit is now final and complete,” ANC secretary general Kgalema Motlanthe told reporters at the party’s headquarters in Johannesburg.
The release of the delegate tally came amid increased political manoeuvring by candidates believed to be interested in heading the party.
Zuma, fired by Mbeki in 2005 in connection with a corruption scandal, has all but declared he will seek the leadership as he tours the country in an American-style election campaign that has fired up his native Zulu heartland and leftist supporters.
Mbeki loyalists fear he could endanger the strong economic growth that has marked Mbeki’s two terms in power.
They have also used corruption allegations hovering over Zuma as well as his embarrassing 2006 rape trial to underscore their belief he is unsuitable. Although a bribery and fraud case collapsed last year, Zuma is expected to be charged again.
The factionalism has led to the worst crisis in the ANC’s 95-year history and prompted suggestions of compromise candidates, including businessmen Tokyo Sexwale and Cyril Ramaphosa.
But they have been hesitant to declare their intentions and have failed to fire the imagination of the ANC faithful. They also are hobbled by their perceived pro-business bias at a time when many ANC supporters want the party to tilt to the left.
Motlanthe, an intellectual who has good relations with both the Mbeki and Zuma camps, also has been mentioned as a possible ANC leader. — Reuters