BLOEMFONTEIN, South Africa: President Jacob Zuma and Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe will go head to head in the battle to lead South Africa’s ruling ANC, after both were nominated by party members yesterday.
At a quinquennial party conference, Motlanthe refused to bow to pressure to not stand, accepting a nomination to the party’s top spot to cheers from supporters along with some boos.
Since taking control of the storied party in 2007, Zuma has been embroiled in a series of financial scandals, prompting some members of the ANC to agitate for a leadership change.
Motlanthe, a former trade unionist and caretaker president who once considered entering the clergy, makes for an unlikely stalking horse. Delegates say his softly-softly approach to running in public has been mirrored in the backrooms of the conference, with the 63-year old running a largely silent campaign.
Party insiders and political analysts give him slim chances of winning. “The writing is on the wall,” said Samson Ramolomo, a voting delegate from Limpopo province, which backed Motlanthe in preliminary voting.
Despite the long odds, Motlanthe doubled his bet, refusing to have his name considered for the deputy president post.
So a loss will see him relegated to the back benches of the party. He is likely to be replaced by Cyril Ramaphosa, who formally threw his hat into the ring on Monday.
Some 4,000 ANC voting delegates — a number revised down from earlier estimates — are gathered in the central city of Bloemfontein to elect candidates to fill the party’s top six positions.
The vote comes as South African police announced that they had arrested four armed right-wing extremists suspected of planning attacks, and there were claims that the ANC conference had been targeted.
An ANC spokesman said the party had been given a preliminary report that the men may have been on route to blow up the venue, but police denied suggestions the meeting was under threat.
Voting will begin soon and the results are expected by early today. No matter who wins, few are predicting any major changes in policy. Both Motlanthe and Zuma come from the centre-left of the party, and both have tempered their revolutionary language with overtures to international investors who are vital to South Africa’s economy. AFP
