ANC presidency race: Sisulu nowhere to be found despite early and noisy start

As the ANC top six positions appear to be all contested towards the party’s national conference in December, President Cyril Ramaphosa has received another nomination for a second term as ANC president – this time from the North West’s ward 17 in Mmakau, where his brother-in-law, Patrice Motsepe, originally comes from.

Ramaphosa’s nomination by his home branch at Chiawelo, Soweto, on Sunday was the second in a single weekend following the rural community in North West nominating him on Saturday.

The president is married to Tshepo Ramaphosa, Motsepe’s sister. The president’s nomination by ward 17 occurred hours prior to his nomination in Soweto.

Ward 17 branch secretary, Kearabetswe Mokoena, confirmed the branch wanted to give the president another chance to be the president of the ANC with Mmamoloko Kubayi as deputy president.

“ANC ward 17 in Mmakau, Madibeng, North West, where Patrice Motsepe, Dr Tshepo Ramaphosa and Bridget Radebe come from, has unanimously given president Cyril Ramaphosa [the] nomination for the second term as the president of the ANC.

This is where the CR17 campaign started in 2015 and this branch want[s] him to finish what he started,” Mokoena said.

Other nominations by the branch were Gwede Mantashe for national chair, Fikile Mbalula for secretary-general, Dr Gwen Ramokgopa for deputy secretary-general and Ronald Lamola for treasurer-general.

The ANC ward 109 branch in Alexandra, Johannesburg, a branch where party treasurer-general Paul Mashatile came from, rejected reports that they had shunned Mashatile by not nominating him.

Branch secretary Isaac Pitso said they agreed to nominate Mashatile as deputy president in a general meeting of the branch they held on Wednesday.

Other nominees by the Alexandra branch were Stan Mathabatha for national chair, Mdumiseni Ntuli for secretary-general, Nomvula Mokonyane for deputy secretary-general and Bejani Chauke for treasurer-general.

Provinces that support the president are Eastern Cape, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Gauteng and Northern Cape. KwaZulu-Natal have chosen Zweli Mkhize as their candidate for ANC president.

North West, Free State and Western Cape are yet state their position. North West and Free State are yet to hold their elective provincial conferences.

Of the four candidates for the presidency, Lindiwe Sisulu was nowhere to be found, although she began her campaign in January, months before the succession campaign officially started.

Despite her early and noisy start, Sisulu, along with Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, were bound to lose the race once more as they were not popular candidates.

Not a single province had backed Sisulu while Dlamini-Zuma was shunned even by KwaZulu-Natal, despite being anointed by Jacob Zuma himself for the position.

ALSO READ: Ramaphosa nominated by own branch in Chiawelo for second term 

– ericn@citizen.co.za