DD Mabuza questions how was Mathews Phosa nominated earlier this year when the process of nominating leaders had not opened.
Mpumalanga ANC chairman David Mabuza has said that the nomination of ex-national treasurer Mathews Phosa’s for the position of President is an indication of the problems that the ANC is faced with.
Mabuza said the processes of nominating candidates ahead of the party’s 54th congress has not yet opened and that the ANC “is still busy dealing with the guidelines”.
“[As Mpumalanga], we are not aware that he is standing as a candidate,” Mabuza said.
He was being interviewed by journalist Justice Malala on his Justice Factor show on eNCA on Monday night this week.
When Malala told him that some branches have already put Phosa’s name forward, Mabuza said: “Well, I don’t know which branches might have said that because the process of nominating leaders had not opened, we are still dealing with the guidelines. I’m aware that there are a number of horses that have bolted [and are] out there campaigning, and that is very unfortunate and is an indication of the problem in the movement”.
Phosa, a Mabuza rival, accepted nomination by some branches in the Western Cape to stand as President.
SEE ALSO: Western Cape ANC wants Mathews Phosa to be President
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Mabuza, who has embarked on a national unity campaign, is seen as the king-maker in the 2017 ANC national elective congress and has been hard at work mobilising provincial chairmen as part of his ambition to emerge as the ANC’s 14th president in December 2017. He is suspected to be planning to be nominated from the floor for the position of president.
He told Malala that he’ll only accept nomination for the position of deputy president but not on a slate ticket.
He said he believes they will have to meet and reach a leadership consensus as the ANC.
“We see an ANC that is gradually depleting itself,” he told Malala.
“Yes we have participated, all of us, in factional battles, Polokwane, Mangaung. At that time we thought we were right but now looking back we realise that there’s a irreparable damage because senior leaders of the ANC left the ANC painfully so,” he said.
(edited by ZK)
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