Zuma E Cape trips bid to win backing

PRESIDENT Zuma’s trips to the Eastern Cape are being seen as a concerted effort to swing the province in his favour ahead of the crucial ANC elective conference in December.

The Eastern Cape is the ANC’s second largest in terms of membership, after KwaZulu-Natal.

On Tuesday, Zuma is expected to deliver the keynote address at Human Rights Day celebrations at the Victoria Grounds in King William’s Town, near East London.

Last week, Zuma attended the regional elective conferences of the Amathole and Nelson Mandela Bay regions.

He is understood to favour his former wife, the ex-AU leader and former cabinet minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, to succeed him when he steps down as ANC leader in December.

This would place her ahead in the race to become the country’s next president in 2019.

Political analyst Dr Somadoda Fikeni said the Eastern Cape was “a significant player in terms of num- bers”. It would be natural for anyone wanting to influence an election to be active in that particular space, he added.

Zuma’s controversial endorsement of Andile Lungisa’s recent election as regional chairperson of Nelson Mandela Bay was seen as an act of open defiance against ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe, who had asked Lungisa not to run for the influential position, because he was already a member of the provincial executive committee.

Another political analyst, Dumisani Hlophe, said Zuma’s trips to the province were interesting because he had made several similar trips to his home province of KwaZulu-Natal, which Hlophe described as “one of the most divided”.

Immediately after Zuma’s endorsement, Lungisa called on the masses to “support and elect a woman president” in December.

Hlophe said: “It would appear that the president is effectively on the campaign trail.

“But there is a potential it might backfire because of differences at Luthuli House (ANC headquarters).”