Media reports that ANC members lauded the deputy president have been described as an interpretation “that creates a false and misleading perception that branches of the ANC in Mpumalanga support Comrade Cyril Ramaphosa”.
The ANC Mpumalanga’s dissociating itself from any of the forerunners – Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and Ramaphosa – comes on the backdrop of sources familiar with provincial chairman David Mabuza’s campaigns that he is hard at work preparing to be nominated from the floor come December 2017.
David Mabuza has recently been avoiding entertaining the ANC’s succession debate, even after national secretary Gwede Mantashe officially opened it, opting to replace the call for him to be the deputy president with the campaign for unity.
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But sources familiar with his campaign in the province say they believe the man aims higher than previously thought and looks to be someone preparing the work to be picked up from the floor for the position of president.
Provincial spokeswoman Sasekani Manzini says a Sowetan article this week reporting on the close to 8 000 ANC members who filled a tent erected outside the Mbombela stadium on Saturday for the party’s “unique” special provincial council is not accurate and “distorts the events that took place” there.
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“This unscientific conclusion of the article is based on the fact that certain delegates ululated when Comrade Cyril Ramaphosa appeared on a video, which was displayed in the PGC.
“The conclusion ignores the fact that delegates ululated when all the provincial chairpersons stood up to speak and even louder when the picture, of former President Nelson Mandela appeared in the same video,” Manzini said in a statement on Tuesday morning.
She said the article “creates a false and misleading perception that branches of the ANC in Mpumalanga support Comrade Cyril Ramaphosa to be the President of the ANC”.
“The PEC would like to put it on record that the PGC did not resolve on supporting any individual for any position in the ANC, but instead listened to leaders of the ANC that presented the challenges confronting the ANC and made proposals on the steps that need to be taken to unite the ANC.
“We also reject the malice that Comrade Robert Gumede prepared the video [that was played at the PGC] and is Comrade DD Mabuza’s chief lobbyist,” Manzini said.
“Comrade DD Mabuza is a tried and tested leader of the ANC with a traceable track record from his youth days and he does not need a lobbyist to be elected, because branches of the ANC which have the right to nominate, know his track record and capabilities,” she said.
(edited by MLM)
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