Cyril draws first blood in Limpopo

Victory for Ramaphosa’s ‘foot-soldier’.

Deputy president lays down a strong marker against Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma in the race to win Limpopo.

Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa and his campaign have laid down a strong marker against former African Union Commission chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma in the race to win Limpopo before the hotly contested ANC elective conference in December.

A lobby group called CR-17 (Cyril Ramaphosa 2017) won the first regional elective conference in the region this weekend.

Ramaphosa’s “foot soldier and diehard supporter” Stan Ramaila won the conference uncontested at the party’s elective conference held outside Groblersdal yesterday.

Limpopo has five regions: Mopani, which is the biggest interms of branches; Peter Mokaba; Waterberg; Sekhukhune; and Vhembe.

Ramaila is also the district municipality executive mayor in Sekhukhune. The district has more than 26 companies mining chrome, steel and platinum. Ironically, the same region is still regarded as one of the poorest in the province.

In 2002, former President Thabo Mbeki declared Sekhukhune as one of the poorest regions and identified it as a nodal point of development, urging government to unleash optimal resources to turn Sekhukhune from rags to riches.

The win by Ramaila will intensify lobbying for Ramaphosa and Dlamini-Zuma in the remaining four regions in Limpopo.

Through its provincial secretary, Nocks Seabi, the ANC released a statement indicating the party’s readiness for a regional elective conference to be held soon. Seabi said the Vhembe region would hold its conference this week near Makhado. –