Official nominations by the Eastern Cape ANC have been a big disappointment for Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma’s lobby as branches overwhelmingly picked Cyril Ramaphosa to be the next president of the governing party.
The election agency announced at the party’s provincial general council (PGC) in the East London City Hall yesterday that Ramaphosa had garnered 423 nominations against Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma’s 89.
The branch nomination results are a big blow for two key lobbyists for the Dlamini-Zuma campaign – Teris Ntutu of Amathole region and Andile Lungisa of Nelson Mandela – as results of their respective regions revealed they failed to make inroads at branch level.
Even though 49 of the 83 branches in Amathole voted for Dlamini-Zuma, 34 endorsed Ramaphosa.
It was even worse in Nelson Mandela Bay, where only eight branches voted for Dlamini-Zuma against 25 for Ramaphosa. Another Dlamini-Zuma lobbyist, Mfundo Bongela, received disappointing results in Joe Gqabi yesterday as only six of his 28 branches endorsed her.
The rest want the ANC deputy president to succeed President Jacob Zuma after the Nasrec conference. It was the party’s second-biggest region in the country, OR Tambo, that led the pack, with 115 of 126 branches in the Mthatha-based region wanting the deputy president to ascend to the party’s highest office.
Three more presidential hopefuls – Zweli Mkhize, Mathew Phosa and Lindiwe Sisulu – received 10, three and one nominations respectively.
The results indicated overwhelming support for Gwede Mantashe as national chairman, Senzo Mchunu as secretary-general, Zingiswa Losi as deputy secretary and Paul Mashatile as treasurer-general.
It was neck-and-neck between David Mabuza and Mkhize with 190 and 193 branch nominations for deputy president.
Mkhize urged the December conference delegates to disappoint the prophets of doom, who have predicted in the media that the 54th conference would be the party’s deathbed. “Some have already written an obituary of the ANC, saying it will die at the conference. Let’s frustrate those prophets.”
Mkhize said the ANC’s greatest challenges were slate politics and factionalism, and that to address this, its leaders must first admit that they, too, were products of slate. He was referring to the voting patterns of many conferences, including Polokwane and Mangaung.
“We must all take responsibility for the success of the 54th conference. It is upon us if we want it to succeed or collapse or we want people to fight.”
Reacting to the outcomes, Ntutu said it was too early for RamaLphosa’s supporters to celebrate. “There are several branches in Amathole that have filed appeals and once the cases are resolved before the conference, the picture will change altogether.”
The Butterworth-based region has 110 branches in good standing but according to the outcomes, only 83 branches held BGMs.
Ntutu questioned the ANC’s decision to rush to the PGC while more branches that qualified to go to the conference had yet to meet.
“This PGC was poorly managed I must say. But rest assured by the time we go to conference, the nominations will reflect differently.”
The PGC kicked off soon after 2pm yesterday. Organisers spent most of the day registering branch delegates at Billy Francis Hall in Greenpoint before heading to the City Hall. The PGC is being held at a time when a group led by former provincial chairman Phumulo Masualle are still awaiting the outcome of a dispute they filed on the legitimacy of the new Oscar Mabuyane-led provincial executive committee.
The ANC’s national executive committee (NEC) assigned Sibusiso Ndebele to lead a team to investigate events leading to the “conference of chairs” when delegates to the October provincial conference threw chairs at each other over disagreements about credentials for the conference.
When the fight – which resulted in hospitalisation of 15 people – started, Masualle’s supporters left the venue. Mabuyane’s faction remained and elected him chairman.
Ndebele is expected to table his report to the NEC this weekend.
The results will have far-reaching implications in light of a high court ruling in the ANC Free State case yesterday. In that case the court found the PEC was illegitimate and subsequently nullified several branch general meetings and annual general meetings it presided over. This was after some branches asked the court to make a ruling about the legitimacy of the Free State PEC, whose term of office has since expired.
The court ruled that BGMs of the affected branches will have to be rerun before the branches can take part in next month’s elective conference. — zineg@dispatch.co.za
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Crushing win for Cyril over NDZ
The election agency announced at the party’s provincial general council (PGC) in the East London City Hall yesterday that Ramaphosa had garnered 423 nominations against Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma’s 89.
The branch nomination results are a big blow for two key lobbyists for the Dlamini-Zuma campaign – Teris Ntutu of Amathole region and Andile Lungisa of Nelson Mandela – as results of their respective regions revealed they failed to make inroads at branch level.
Even though 49 of the 83 branches in Amathole voted for Dlamini-Zuma, 34 endorsed Ramaphosa.
It was even worse in Nelson Mandela Bay, where only eight branches voted for Dlamini-Zuma against 25 for Ramaphosa. Another Dlamini-Zuma lobbyist, Mfundo Bongela, received disappointing results in Joe Gqabi yesterday as only six of his 28 branches endorsed her.
The rest want the ANC deputy president to succeed President Jacob Zuma after the Nasrec conference. It was the party’s second-biggest region in the country, OR Tambo, that led the pack, with 115 of 126 branches in the Mthatha-based region wanting the deputy president to ascend to the party’s highest office.
Three more presidential hopefuls – Zweli Mkhize, Mathew Phosa and Lindiwe Sisulu – received 10, three and one nominations respectively.
The results indicated overwhelming support for Gwede Mantashe as national chairman, Senzo Mchunu as secretary-general, Zingiswa Losi as deputy secretary and Paul Mashatile as treasurer-general.
It was neck-and-neck between David Mabuza and Mkhize with 190 and 193 branch nominations for deputy president.
Mkhize urged the December conference delegates to disappoint the prophets of doom, who have predicted in the media that the 54th conference would be the party’s deathbed. “Some have already written an obituary of the ANC, saying it will die at the conference. Let’s frustrate those prophets.”
Mkhize said the ANC’s greatest challenges were slate politics and factionalism, and that to address this, its leaders must first admit that they, too, were products of slate. He was referring to the voting patterns of many conferences, including Polokwane and Mangaung.
“We must all take responsibility for the success of the 54th conference. It is upon us if we want it to succeed or collapse or we want people to fight.”
Reacting to the outcomes, Ntutu said it was too early for RamaLphosa’s supporters to celebrate. “There are several branches in Amathole that have filed appeals and once the cases are resolved before the conference, the picture will change altogether.”
The Butterworth-based region has 110 branches in good standing but according to the outcomes, only 83 branches held BGMs.
Ntutu questioned the ANC’s decision to rush to the PGC while more branches that qualified to go to the conference had yet to meet.
“This PGC was poorly managed I must say. But rest assured by the time we go to conference, the nominations will reflect differently.”
The PGC kicked off soon after 2pm yesterday. Organisers spent most of the day registering branch delegates at Billy Francis Hall in Greenpoint before heading to the City Hall. The PGC is being held at a time when a group led by former provincial chairman Phumulo Masualle are still awaiting the outcome of a dispute they filed on the legitimacy of the new Oscar Mabuyane-led provincial executive committee.
The ANC’s national executive committee (NEC) assigned Sibusiso Ndebele to lead a team to investigate events leading to the “conference of chairs” when delegates to the October provincial conference threw chairs at each other over disagreements about credentials for the conference.
When the fight – which resulted in hospitalisation of 15 people – started, Masualle’s supporters left the venue. Mabuyane’s faction remained and elected him chairman.
Ndebele is expected to table his report to the NEC this weekend.
The results will have far-reaching implications in light of a high court ruling in the ANC Free State case yesterday. In that case the court found the PEC was illegitimate and subsequently nullified several branch general meetings and annual general meetings it presided over. This was after some branches asked the court to make a ruling about the legitimacy of the Free State PEC, whose term of office has since expired.
The court ruled that BGMs of the affected branches will have to be rerun before the branches can take part in next month’s elective conference. — zineg@dispatch.co.za
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