Kimberley - The ANC in the Northern Cape has been vocal in its support for Cyril Ramaphosa and the party’s provincial chairperson, Zamani Saul, on Sunday explained why the deputy president is the man to take the organisation and the country forward.
The ANC and its alliance partners, the SACP and Cosatu, packed the Mittah Seperepere Convention Centre for the Cadres Assembly in Kimberley on Sunday and reiterated their support for Ramaphosa.
Members of the ANC Women’s League (ANCWL) and supporters from the Free State also formed part of the gathering, despite recent pronouncements that Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma was the preferred candidate of the ANCWL.
Saul outlined the similarities in the Northern Cape’s support for Zuma in 2007 and its current support for Ramaphosa. “Today I will say exactly what I said 10 years ago, when the then deputy president, Jacob Zuma, visited as part of his ANC presidential campaign.
“The reason I decided to take such an approach is because of three stark similarities between then and now. The first similarity is the host town, the 2007 event was in Kimberley, just as this one.
"The second similarity is that the then deputy president of the ANC was under severe attack by those who did not want him to ascend to the position of president of the ANC.
“The third similarity is that we are just a week away from nomination branch general meetings, as in 2007.
“In my 2007 address, I highlighted the fact that it is an established tradition in the ANC that the deputy president of the party is the next in line for the position of president."
Saul said it was a resolution adopted by the ANC 1949 National Conference that "from now, henceforth the deputy president of the organisation shall preferably succeed an outgoing president".
"Now in 2017 we pledge to remain faithful to that resolution.”
Saul said Ramaphosa was a "politically astute leader with immense capabilities".