Ronald Lamola backs Ramaphosa for second term as ANC president

With the ANC set to elect new leadership later this year, Justice and Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola has backed President Cyril Ramaphosa for a second term as the governing party’s president.

Lamola, a member of the ANC’s national executive committee (NEC), has also indicated his interest in contesting David Mabuza for the position of ANC deputy president at the party’s 55th national conference in December.

Organisational renewal

In a wide-ranging interview with SABC News on Tuesday evening, Lamola said if the ANC was to succeed with its renewal agenda, the party needed younger leaders in the top six and for the purpose of “stability and continuity”, Ramaphosa should be elected for a second term.

“I think he does [deserve to come back as ANC president]. I would prefer that we allow the process to unfold as it should in the processes of the organisation, but I think we do need stability and continuity,” Lamola said.

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Asked whether he thought the ANC was on the right track under Ramaphosa’s leadership, Lamola said he believed so.

“I think a younger generation of ANC members continues to raise their voice sharply in terms of the direction of the organisation on issues of organisational renewal and even on issues that relate to unemployment, poverty and economic transformation that we need to see in the country.

“So, there is a platform to engage on them in the organisation and we continue to do so,” he said.

Intergenerational mix

Lamola said an intergenerational mix in the ANC’s leadership structures would help to ensure that the governing party is able to self-correct from its mistakes and be critical of itself.

“I have seen across the country, with the younger generation coming in, it’s helping but we are also learning from the older generation that is there. So, we need to strike a balance,” he said.

Open discussion

While some ANC members have raised concerns about comrades making pronouncements on the leadership race, arguing that the nomination process is not yet open, Lamola said he believed the ANC should have an open discussion on the party’s leadership contest.

He said this would ensure that party members were able to interrogate those who stand for leadership positions.

“When we allow for an open discussion, it will allow for structures to even interrogate whoever might want to lead the ANC at whatever stage or level.

“And not only deal with the nomination, because the nomination is a technical constitutional process, but as to who must be nominated and what ideas they stand for, there must be a process. I’m hopeful that one day we will have a way of regulating that kind of a discussion.”

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Lamola said the criticism of Limpopo ANC provincial chair Stan Mathabatha, who recently backed Ramaphosa for a second term, showed that the ANC needed to develop clear guidelines and regulations on the leadership contest and how lobbying should happen internally.

“As it happens now, it [lobbying] happens outside the structures [of the ANC], and then it’s brought in the structures.

“But when there is a clear regulation, the structure itself can regulate how it should be done and it can even regulate various issues that relate to internal party campaigning,” Lamola said.

Meanwhile, the ANC’s NEC is expected to meet this week from Thursday until Friday for its regular session.

The NEC, the ANC’s highest decision-making body in between conferences, will focus on “the critical tasks of organisational renewal and will also adopt a roadmap” towards the 55th national conference in December.

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