ONE STEP FORWARD
New ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa will need all his skill and charm to get a divided party on the same track — not only to save its dignity at the polls in 2019 but to ensure he becomes president of SA and gets the country working again
Cyril Ramaphosa is the new ANC president, but his victory has been poisoned. He will be heading a mixed slate of ANC leaders after beating Nkosazana Dlamini-zuma by 179 votes — not a commanding victory over the candidate favoured by outgoing party leader, Jacob Zuma. After a two-decade wait for the top position in the party, Ramaphosa was elected president with 2,440 votes to his rival’s 2,261.
He is no newcomer to the ANC’S top six. In 1991 he was elected secretary-general (with Zuma his deputy) and was head of the party’s negotiations commission at the Convention for a Democratic SA (Codesa).
Ramaphosa, a former leader of the National Union of Mineworkers, was tipped to become Nelson Mandela’s deputy and successor but the ANC “collective” thought differently and he lost out to Thabo Mbeki.
It was supposedly because of this that he resigned as ANC secretary-general and from parliament in 1996, and became a leading businessman. He has, however, served as a member of the party’s national executive committee (NEC) since then. He returned to the ANC’S top six at the party’s 2012 Mangaung conference, as deputy president on Zuma’s slate.
Now he has succeeded Zuma as president of the ANC and possibly of SA.
Ramaphosa will have to work closely with a mix of friends and foes elected beside him at the conference.
He is effectively hemmed in by two current Zuma allies and one former supporter of Zuma. But he is tough, per- sonable and has negotiating skills.
His right-hand man and deputy president will be Mpumalanga chairman David “DD” Mabuza, a somewhat sinister and wily operator who — with all his faults — is seen by some to be strong on governance. Mpumalanga under Mabuza was one of only two provinces that registered improvement, according to the auditor-general’s 2015-2016 report on local government.
Mabuza beat “princess” Lindiwe Sisulu for the party’s deputy presidency by a relatively comfortable 2,538 votes to 2,159. No member of the top six received more votes.
Before the results were announced it was clear that Sisulu had lost. She cast a lonely figure on stage, speaking to noone and looking ever more sour as day turned to night.
It was the Mpumalanga vote which swept Ramaphosa to victory — through a deal apparently not of his making.
Mabuza, a former Zuma ally, had been keeping his cards close to his chest, vacillating over which candidate he would back. The Ramaphosa camp were aware that they would have to turn to at least one Zuma province for their man to stand a chance. Mabuza, who is hostile to the Guptas and worried about the ANC’S sliding electoral fortunes, was identified as an amenable potential ally. As a practical, ambitious politician, Mabuza was open to making a deal.
He had for months been in talks with the provincial party bigwigs of Gauteng, the Eastern Cape, Limpopo, Northern Cape and the Western Cape. But on the eve of the conference he told regional leaders in his province that he was going with Dlamini-zuma and that his attempt at forging a “unity ticket” had failed. This meant the votes of his province would go to Dlamini-zuma.
Ramaphosa backers were at that stage not too concerned as they had already “quarantined” 397 delegates from the province. But panic set in after Mabuza individually called a
What it means: If Ramaphosa hopes to win trust in the lead-up to elections and restore investor confidence, he will have to act decisively