Kingmaker Mabuza ‘backs Ramaphosa’

JZ’S SINS: ANC UNDER DLAMINI-ZUMA ‘WILL LOSE 2019’

Mpumalanga premier told to keep his support for deputy president to himself.

Mpumalanga ANC provincial chairperson and premier, David Mabuza, is proving to be a potential kingmaker in the ongoing ANC succession battle after a tug-of-war between supporters of former African Union Commission chairperson, Nkosazana Dlamini- Zuma, and Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Yesterday the KwaZulu-Natal ANC provincial executive committee moved out of their comfort zone and travelled to Mpumalanga to lobby Mabuza and his fellow party provincial executives to win their support for Dlamini-Zuma. The clandestine meeting was a bid to forge a united bloc for Dlamini-Zuma at the party’s December elective national conference.

But, according an ANC source in Mpumalanga, after yesterday’s meeting Mabuza was still unmoved in his support for Ramaphosa over Dlamini-Zuma.

Mabuza refused to back Dlamini-Zuma saying if she became ANC president, the ruling party would lose the 2019 national election. Mabuza argued that President Jacob Zuma’s sins would be visited on Dlamini-Zuma by the voters.

With only four months remaining before the ANC’s elective conference in December, the Dlamini-Zuma and Ramaphosa camps have begun aggressive campaigns for their respective candidates at branch and regional level countrywide.

The Dlamini-Zuma followers felt uneasy when Mabuza met with other party bigwigs on the sidelines of the recent party policy conference. The group, that included Gwede Mantashe, Lindiwe Sisulu, Paul Mashatile and Mabuza, held discussions in Pretoria to plan their campaign at branch and regional level.

According to an ANC source, it was in that meeting that Mabuza allegedly came clean about his allegiance to the Ramaphosa camp. But as a strategy, he was told to keep it to himself and only project a message of unity while he distanced himself from any faction.