Infighting, bribery plague ANC contest
South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) will this weekend choose a new president, a seismic decision for both party and country amid claims of campaign dirty tricks, intimidation and bribery.
The vote represents one of the most pivotal ever by the party of Nelson Mandela. The winner will be the ANC’s presidential candidate to succeed Jacob Zuma, 75, in 2019, and the choice is stark.
One of the two frontrunners in a tight contest is Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, 68, Zuma’s taciturn ex-wife and a former Commission of the African Union chairwoman. She has vowed to drive forward his policy of ‘‘radical economic transformation’’, which could include white-owned land seizures and mine nationalisation.
She would, if she won, have the power to pardon Zuma were he to face corruption charges. She has dismissed suggestions that she is his puppet as ‘‘offensive’’. Critics fear that voters would continue to drift away from the ANC under her, threatening the party’s 25-year hold on post-apartheid power.
Her main rival is Cyril Ramaphosa, 65, South Africa’s vicepresident and a former trade unionist turned millionaire businessman. He has won friends in business and civil society for his vow to be market-friendly and jail those implicated in the corruption and cronyism that has characterised Zuma’s eight years in power.
At previous conferences, delegates were bribed to get votes. This year the ANC has banned delegates from taking photos of their filled-in ballot papers.
Ramaphosa claimed last week that delegates were being offered up to £5000 or luxury cars. ‘‘Patronage has also become a factor in all this,’’ he said.
Some analysts have suggested that reverse bribery could take place, which is harder to detect: delegates will be told that lucrative state contracts handed to their relatives will be removed if a particular candidate does not win.
Dlamini-Zuma said her campaign did not need to cheat. ‘‘We have worked, been to every corner of this country, making people understand so that when they elect us, they elect us out of conviction.’’
Zuma said in July that the losing candidate should be taken on as the winner’s deputy, in what was widely interpreted as an indication he believed his ex-wife’s bid was failing.
Last week he summoned all seven candidates to a dinner in Pretoria, jokingly described as ‘‘The Last Supper’’, at which he appealed to them to keep the peace, with some suggesting he was proposing a ‘‘unity’’ slate of all seven.
There are some concerns that the conference could fail to make a decision, perhaps because of violence, an outcome that could leave Zuma at the helm in a febrile environment.
An unprecedented spate of court challenges to ANC branches’ choice of delegates has marked the run-up to the conference, with three still outstanding. Violence has broken out at provincial conferences preceding the main event, and in KwaZulu-Natal, Zuma’s heartland, local politicians were killed. Sex scandals have surfaced, most recently around Gwede Mantashe, the long-suffering ANC secretary-general, tasked with keeping the vote fair.
One respected South African newspaper reported that Zuma had told the armed forces to prepare for a state of emergency, although he has denied this.
Church and civil society leaders have appealed for calm and ‘‘sober’’ thinking that puts the country ahead of politics.
Lindiwe Sisulu, who is tipped to be Ramaphosa’s deputy if he wins and is the daughter Walter Sisulu, who is ANC royalty, said it was in everyone’s interests to keep the peace.
‘‘We are fighting to get back the dignity and integrity of the ANC and rid ourselves of all of these things that have brought us so low,’’ she said. ‘‘We don’t want that drowned out by chairs flying or talk of battles.’’