Bargaining, split provinces in race for ANC top spot

Lobbyists from both slates continued to canvas for their candidates as they try to bag the coveted 2 214 votes that will secure the position of party president. 

Mkhize has the backing of his home province of KwaZulu-Natal, which also has the largest number of voting delegates at the gathering, while Ramaphosa has been touted as the favourite for the Eastern Cape, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, and Gauteng.  

Mkhize, who’s making a second bid for the party’s top spot after an unsuccessful 2017 campaign, canvassed aggressively in the final days towards conference.  

 Political analyst Dr Thapelo Tselapedi says he doesn’t believe either Ramaphosa or Mkhize promise will usher in the party’s much-needed renewal. 

 “People like Zweli have been in the ANC for quite a lot of years and I think some of them may indulge in issues of sins of incumbency – you may remember the issue of ‘Mr 10%’ – then people like Cyril Ramaphosa who hadn’t really been in the ANC in terms of contestations of power within and he may not necessarily suffer from those. But, of course, to be at the top of the ANC as president you need to be able to engage power brokers within the ANC. So to that extent, they are part of the same organisational culture of the ANC, so for me, I don’t see any renewal with both candidates.” 

 At the same time, there have been reports of attempts of vote buying and rigorous horse trading by both camps, as late as last night. 

Videos of leaders from different provinces, particularly Florence Radzilani in Limpopo who instructs delegates to dump the Ramaphosa campaign for Mkhize, that imply a switch in their preferred candidate have also made the rounds. 

But Tselapedi says Ramaphosa still has the upper hand and could still try to capture a portion of the KZN vote. 

“You don’t need half of KZN, if he could just get 20% to 30% and split it, that’s enough. KZN in the previous conference was divided, I suspect coming here it may still be divided. He’s [Ramaphosa] got Eastern Cape, large parts of Gauteng, and parts of Limpopo. Split the provinces, and move forward. No province has monopoly over their candidates.”  

 It’s been widely speculated that after Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma declined her nomination for the position of president, her backers may sway their numbers to the Mkhize camp. And, while she failed to garner enough support to make it onto the ballot for her treasurer-general nomination from the floor, supporters of the politically wounded Lindiwe Sisulu may also support Mkhize. 

Voting for the top seven position was yet to commence at 2pm on Sunday.