Durban - With the ANC’s 55th national conference in Nasrec starting tomorrow, all four contenders for the presidency and their lobbyists remain upbeat about their chances.
Despite current ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa and former health minister Zweli Mkhize leading with the most nominations for the position, Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma and Tourism Minister Lindiwe Sisulu also believe they have a chance.
Chief lobbyist of Mkhize’s campaign, Siphiwe Blose, said their campaign was gaining momentum ahead of the conference.
“The campaign is doing very well. We are receiving delegates from all corners of the country (who want to work with them),” he said.
He said party members who wanted to make it on to the NEC (national executive committee), were approaching the campaign to discuss support.
He said there were ongoing engagements with other campaigns including the Dlamini Zuma and Sisulu campaigns.
“The engagements are at the level of those who are co-ordinating and campaigning, not engagements between the candidates.
“We started engagements some time ago but we are intensifying as time goes, consolidating to have one bigger thing, but it all looks good, we are on the ground and we are confident that the ANC will go back to its people,” he said.
A key campaigner for Dlamini Zuma, who did not want to be named, confirmed that she was campaigning for the president’s position.
“We are talking to branches and delegates who have asked her if she will make herself available for nomination from the floor and that is one way she can get on the ballot.
“We will now canvass widely with other delegates to see if they will support this view.”
On policy issues that the conference should tackle, the lobbyist said she was looking at policies that would ease the burden of the difficult economic climate on citizens, including the impact of petrol price and interest rate hikes.
“She will also look at how we can bring the employment level up to standard by creating more work to reduce unemployment, especially among the youth.’’
Speaking to the media yesterday about a suggestion that there may be an attempt to block her from the presidential race, Dlamini Zuma, who has massive credentials within the party and has been vocal about the Phala Phala issue, said she was going nowhere.
She said she was unfazed by ANC national chairperson Gwede Mantashe’s assertions that he was reporting her and other MPs to the party’s disciplinary committee regarding how they voted in Parliament on Tuesday.
Dlamini Zuma and three other ANC MPs voted with opposition parties in support of the National Assembly adopting the report which found that Ramaphosa had a case to answer regarding the Phala Phala matter.
“I am a member of the ANC and I joined the ANC when I was still young. I will remain a member of the ANC. I don’t know of a rule that says you can’t express your view in Parliament.”
She said if she was disciplined, she would fight the matter.
Asked about the presidential race, Sisulu said she had been approached by ANC members.
“I don’t have an ambition, I was requested by the structures of the ANC to avail myself for the leadership role,” Sisulu said.
If elected as president, Sisulu said South Africans should expect the full implementation of the Freedom Charter and the ANC conference resolutions.
When asked if she thought the ANC was ready for a female president, she said: “The ANC has been more than ready long ago, even during the times of Charlotte Maxeke, Lilian Ngoyi, Adelaide Tambo and Winnie Mandela.”
Regarding her absence during the Phala Phala vote in Parliament, Sisulu told political analyst Professor Sipho Seepe in a Press Club South Africa discussion yesterday that she had been locked out of the National Assembly before the vote.
Sisulu said her intention was to vote for the adoption of the motion when she received a message that she and Mkhize were being targeted and the suggestion was that they not vote.
“I left the National Assembly to find out what this message was about and by the time I returned, the doors had been closed.”
Asked about her reaction when the Phala Phala scandal broke, Sisulu said she was shocked.
“We have experienced Phala Phala and whether we like it or not several very important laws have been broken. We should have allowed Comrade Cyril to resign and we should have investigated the matter to make sure that it doesn’t ever happen again,” said Sisulu.
Despite the Phala Phala scandal hanging over his head, former KwaZulu-Natal Human Settlements MEC Jomo Sibiya, who is a staunch Ramaphosa supporter, said he was confident the president would emerge victorious.
Asked about the argument that resolutions from the ANC’s 2017 were not implemented under Ramaphosa, Sibiya dismissed this view, citing the land-reform legislation that allowed for the expropriation of land without compensation.
He added that linking the president to the “step-aside” resolution was improper, as it was an ANC resolution, however, he said that it must be implemented consistently.
Political analyst Daniel Silke said Ramaphosa may have been boosted by the ANC’s vote against the Phala Phala report, however, that did not mean it would be a “united conference”.
He added that while he was likely to survive the conference, the real test would come when the state organs released their findings on Phala Phala.
Another political analyst, Thabani Khumalo, agreed that while Ramaphosa may win the conference, the real test was still to come.
He said the president would need to change his behaviour if he wanted to survive a second term.