ANC’S NEW DAWN
Mkhize in 11th hour surprise Proxy wars to determine winner
LAST night as The Star went to press, the race for the leadership of the ANC remained too close to call. Last minute lobbying, horsetrading and fake news went into overdrive as the party’s 4 776 delegates prepared to elect the top leadership of the governing party.
The nominations for the top six positions, held after 6pm, produced a few surprises. One of them was when the outgoing treasurer-general Zweli Mkhize declined nomination for the deputy president position.
He had been nominated by 193 branches for the position but declined, saying this was in the “interests of unity”.
His withdrawal kept pundits guessing as to whether he would throw his weight behind either Cyril Ramaphosa or Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma. Lobbyists from both factions claimed Mkhize’s support, but he had not publicly announced support for either.
Hours before voting was due to begin, Super Zuma, the secretary of the ANC in KwaZuluNatal, said the Dlamini Zuma faction was still lobbying Mkhize. “There has been some engagement with him and there are comrades who are managing that issue. We are in a process of discussion with him,” Zuma added.
Officials from the elections agency overseeing the process earlier announced that Naledi Pandor had also withdrawn from the race for the deputy president, paving the way for Lindiwe Sisulu.
Nomvula Mokonyane declined nomination for the treasurer-general position – leaving the way clear for a two-way slate.
Voting was expected to commence after 9pm, with the results to be announced this morning.
There were a number of critical proxy battles that played out in full view of the conference – that were won by one or the other of the two factions.
Divisions played themselves out at the plen- ary, as the two factions flexed their muscles in some debates.
Salvos were fired on day one of the conference when Dlamini Zuma’s supporters rejected the proposal to have alliance partners deliver messages of support at the open session
One of these was the bitter discussions that ensued after the Electoral Commission of SA outlined the rules for nominations.
The bone of contention was around the identification of delegates with the proposal being that on top of the accreditation tags, delegates would be required to provide identity documents.
Another proposal was to ban the lists of candidates being nominated for the additional 80 positions in the national executive committee (NEC).
ANC elections agency head and Struggle stalwart Sindiso Mfenyana laid down the rules during the session, announcing that the ballots for the nomination of additional NEC members would not have names on them.
The group supporting Dlamini Zuma rejected these proposals on various grounds, including that the delegates could not be expected to remember all the names that had been nominated by their branches.
Mfenyana said the agency’s plan not to include the names was in the interests of crushing factionalism, which President Jacob Zuma declared was the biggest threat to the ANC.
ANC NEC member Tony Yengeni told delegates that the conference was the party’s highest decision-making structure. ”Nobody can impose rules on us,” he said to loud applause.
When it seemed that the conference could deteriorate into chaos, various NEC members intervened. The discussions were deferred until after the nomination of the top six officials, when NEC member Naledi Pandor warned: “We cannot carry on this way.”
During other sessions there were other battles being fought, with many ending in a stalemate. Another one had been on constitutional amendments where delegates considered the issue of expanding the top six to eight members.
The Dlamini Zuma supporters were in favour of the expansion, while those aligned to Ramaphosa rejected it. The Dlamini Zuma camp suffered a blow after these proposed amendments were rejected by the plenary and Ramaphosa supporters later claimed victory over that outcome.
One delegate said the majority of delegates had voted in favour of the status quo remaining in terms of the size of the top six..
The Dlamini Zuma camp had also unsuccessfully tried to push for voting on the issue of the deputy secretary-general to be decided by secret, ballot, but failed on that too.
While the general view was that the race was too close to call, this did not prevent both sides from circulating messages claiming victory based on predictions.
The factions also tried to oust one another at the conference.