#ANCWC picks Cyril Ramaphosa to lead the ruling party

Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa is the candidate of choice for most ANC branches in the Western Cape. Picture: Ian Landsberg/ANA

Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa is the candidate of choice for most ANC branches in the Western Cape. Picture: Ian Landsberg/ANA

Published Nov 26, 2017

Share

Cape Town - More than 80% of ANC branches in the Western Cape have nominated the party’s deputy Cyril Ramaphosa to succeed Jacob Zuma as the party’s next president.

While there were still pending disputes over the branch nomination process, ANC Western Cape acting chairperson Khaya Magaxa said this would not materially change the top six nominations.

Ramaphosa received 121 branch nominations, with Lindiwe Sisulu receiving 98 nominations to be his deputy while current ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe received 128 nominations to be the party’s chairperson, Senzo Mchunu received 113, while Zingiswa Losi received 60 nominations to be his deputy, and Paul Mashatile received 127 to be the party’s treasurer-general.

Read: 

While Ramaphosa had shocked his supporters two weeks ago, announcing that his preferred choice for deputy was Naledi Pandor, most of his supporters chose to differ and nominated Sisulu whose bid for the top spot has floundered in recent weeks.

The Western Cape ANC’s provincial general council was earlier addressed by the party’s secretary general Gwede Mantashe who slammed state capture, and the buying of branch delegates to influence the outcome of the party’s December conference.

Magaxa said today’s meeting was the culmination of a six week programme of branch nominations.

He said a few branches, located mostly in the Dullah Omar (Cape Town Metro) and Boland regions, were still outstanding with their branch nominations because of disputes.

Also read: 

Many of these branches could not quorate because of their size, with the requirement from the ANC that 50%+1 of the branch's members in good standing be present for a branch general meeting.

“The deadline for branch nominations was today(Sunday) but we need to caution that the number disputes and the number of branches that are still busy with BGMs(branch general meetings) will not make any material difference to the nominations of the (top) six officials but can still make a difference to the additional members,” said Magaxa.

While supporters of Ramaphosa were celebrating, Magaxa said the consolidated results were only draft.

“It will only be final once the disputes are all resolved and the results of the outstanding branches are tabled,” said Magaxa.

While the regional executive of the Dullah Omar region had expressed its support for Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma to become the party’s next president, she was trounced by Ramaphosa who got 28 branch nominations as opposed to eight for the former head of the AU.

Political Bureau

Related Topics: