ANC treasurer-general Zweli Mkhize and Water and Sanitation Minister Nomvula Mokonyane have declined nominations for the ANC’s top six positions on the floor of the national conference as delegates head to the polls to elect a new leadership.
The withdrawals from the two prominent members leave delegates with 12 nominations which are the preferred slates of presidential frontrunners, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and Cyril Ramaphosa.
The official nominees for the top six positions on the Dlamini-Zuma slate are: David Mabuza (deputy president), Ace Magashule (secretary general), Jessie Duarte (deputy secretary general), Nathi Mthethwa (chairperson) and Maite Nkoana-Mashabane (treasurer-general).
On the Ramaphosa side the nominees are: Lindiwe Sisulu (deputy-president), Senzo Mchunu (secretary general), Zingiswa Losi (deputy secretary general), Gwede Mantashe (chairperson) and Paul Mashatile (treasurer-general).
Earlier today the conference rejected proposals to make extensions to the top six by way of an additional deputy president and an additional deputy secretary general.
It is understood that the push for the additional deputy secretary general was to accommodate Mokonyane who was nominated by KwaZulu-Natal for the position of treasurer general.
Mkhize, the outgoing treasurer-general who had presidential ambitions, managed to secure a nomination for deputy president from the Eastern Cape.
In what appeared to be an about turn at the last minute, Mkhize stood up to decline after the electoral commission had announced that he was in the running and had accepted nomination.
He said that the move was in the interest of the unity of the party.
Others who had declined nomination prior to today’s session include NEC member Naledi Pandor, who was Ramaphosa’s preferred candidate for deputy president, as well as former youth league leader Vuyiswa Tulelo who had been given the nod for the position of deputy secretary general by the Gauteng province.
The nomination session came close to collapsing when the conference insisted that delegates be allowed to take lists into the voting booth when electing the 80 NEC members.
The electoral commission’s Sindiso Mfenyana had a tough time insisting that it was not in the rules to allow the lists into the booth.
A series of interventions were made by NEC members Gwede Mantashe, Tony Yengeni, David Mahlobo and Pandor. Pandor was the final arbiter when her proposal that the matter of the NEC be returned to after the nomination and voting in the top six was adopted.
Throughout the brief chaos which ensued, supporters of Dlamini-Zuma were vocal throughout singing, “phakama Nkosazana”.
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