D-Day for new ANC leader

SOUTH AFRICA - In Brief 17 Dec 2017 by Iraj Abedian

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Since yesterday, the ANC Elective Congress has been in full swing, but on slow motion, mainly due to the mix of ‘delegate accreditation issues” and “the pending court cases” against three provincial structures and some districts with relatively large branches. Interestingly enough, the majority of the problematic cases are in amongst the pro-Zuma provinces and regions. By close of business yesterday, two of the provinces lost their cases in the court, and as such their provincial structures lost their voting rights. The upshot was over 377 delegates lost their voting rights and two provincial executives were disallowed to vote, and the outcome bolstered Ramaphosa’s case because his opponent, Dr Dlamini-Zuma, lost 218 of all those cancelled votes. Furthermore, late in the day, the current Chairperson of the ANC and the presiding Speaker of the Parliament, Mrs Mbete, switched allegiance and expressed open support for Ramaphosa. Assuming the today’s delegates accreditation goes smoothly and voting gets under way, the Congress will first vote for the all-important position of the Party’s President. Irrespective of who wins, the ANC will have a new president. At present, the odds are in favour of Ramaphosa. But such hottly contested ANC gathering is not done unless it is done! Around mid-night tonight (SA time), we should know. At the time of writing, the latest delegate tally suggests a total of 4776 votes will be cast in the next few hours. Predictions are that Ramaphosa will secure an estimated 2633 votes against Dlamini-Zuma's projected 2135. For now at least, Ramaphosa has something to smile about, and possily build up the momentum he needs to secure a convincing major...