Johannesburg - With President Cyril Ramaphosa’s problems seemingly getting deeper, Dr Zweli Mkhize can snatch the presidency under his nose.
This was the view of senior political analyst Susan Booysen who told Independent Media that although Mkhize had received less than half branch nominations compared to Ramaphosa, a lot has changed since then and his campaign had gained ground in other provinces where he had fared badly when the electoral committee announced the candidates last month.
“Mkhize has an outside chance although I can’t put my money on him but can get away with it since the president was besieged by problems,” said Booysen.
While the president was still reeling from the Phala Phala debacle and trying to ward off flies that still follow him, on the eve of the conference he was slapped with criminal charges as an accessory to crime which was laid by former president Jacob Zuma.
Charges that are contained in a 52-page dossier are linked to state prosecutor advocate Billy Downer whom Zuma dragged to court for allegedly leaking his medical records to News24 legal journalist Karyn Maughan. Both had already appeared in the Pietermaritzburg High Court for the matter. The two counts relate to the president’s failure to act against Downer although he had acknowledged the allegations against him were serious which he said he had referred to the Minister of Justice but to date, nothing has happened.
The president is also facing a charge of obstruction of justice in relation to the matter.
When news broke on Thursday night there was confusion about whether the president would be able to deliver his political report on Friday since his detractors invoked the step-aside rule.
Apart from charges, the president’s situation has been further compounded by the latest reports that Mkhize had swayed Limpopo and North West delegates to his favour. He was said to have taken half of Gauteng delegates and a sizeable number in Mpumalanga.
Meanwhile, contrary to reports that Mkhize may drop one of two candidates from Gauteng to have a balanced top six he has stuck to his original line-up which included three candidates from Gauteng. In his list, branches had paired him with Paul Mashatile as his deputy while the current Limpopo chairperson was earmarked for the national chairperson. Current Ekurhuleni regional chairperson Mzwandile Masina completed Mkhize’s slate as treasurer-general. All of them are from Gauteng.
After the meeting with Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma and Lindiwe Sisulu’s camps on Saturday, one of Mkhize's campaign managers who said he preferred to remain anonymous told Independent Media that the problem they had with other camps was that they did not have enough numbers to demand a seat in the top six. The manager from KwaZulu-Natal said although the treasurer-general’s position was not yet allocated Masina was a strong contender since he was coming with numbers.
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