ANC: It’s the final countdown as voting begins

ANC delegates started voting on Sunday night in a contest that has eliminated weaker candidates and left it a stark choice between heavyweights Cyril Ramaphosa and Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.

While the party had announced its intention to do away with slate politics, the conference in Nasrec, Johannesburg, has firmly entrenched the practice that has been blamed for causing divisions.

When the race for ANC presidency first started, seven senior leaders of the party made themselves available for the position.

These included Mathews Phosa, Lindiwe Sisulu, Jeff Radebe, Zweli Mkhize and parliamentary speaker Baleka Mbete. The five, however, did not muster the minimum support required.

There were expectations that Mkhize would avail himself for the deputy presidency, but he dramatically withdrew from the race just before nominations from the floor of the conference. Mkhize, who has been party treasurer-general and therefore part of the top six leaders for the past 10 years, will now have to hope for a place in the 80-member national executive committee (NEC).

Nomvula Mokonyane – a staunch supporter of President Jacob Zuma – also withdrew her nomination as treasurer-general, after she only obtained just over 200 nominations.

The process to nominate only got under way after a tense standoff between members over voting procedures.

While the party’s electoral commission wanted voting delegates not to be allowed to take lists of their preferred leader into the voting booths, many delegates felt otherwise.

They insisted that the lists they were carrying to vote for the NEC reflected their branch mandates. This argument divided the conference into two groups in an embarrassing drama played out in front of local and international journalists.

The deadlock was broken when NEC member Naledi Pandor suggested that voting for the top six be allowed to proceed and the issue of the process for the NEC be left to Monday, when voting for the NEC is due to happen.

	Rapule Tabane Politics editor City Press City Press p: +27 11 713 9001 w: www.citypress.co.za  e: rapule.tabane@citypress.co.za
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