by 013NEWS Reporter | Dec 10, 2017 | Politics
With just few a days to go, the ANC’s 54th congress will obviously be the toughest yet.
ANC regional leaders in the Mpumalanga province are in a bid to rescue presidential contender Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma’s sinking campaign ship as five of the nine ANC provinces have declared support for Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Dlamini-Zuma has since been nominated by KZN, North West and Free State, with Mpumalanga nominating Unity.
On Thursday last week (8 Dec), Nkangala ANC chairman Speedy Mashilo convened what they say was a ‘caucus’ – attended by the region’s delegates – and inviting Bohlabela leader Gillion Mashego, Gert Sibande’s Muzi Chirwa and eHlanzeni’s Ngrayi Ngwenya.
Sources who attended this meeting in KwaMhlanga later on the day said it was chaired by Mashilo – and that both Mashego and Chirwa spoke and all told the delegates that they support Dlamini-Zuma.
Ngwenya didn’t come to the meeting but did send an apology, sources told the 013NEWS reporter.
Nkangala delegates were assured by Mashilo, Mashego and Chirwa that all is well with the NDZ ship, amidst Limpopo, Gauteng and the three cape provinces nominating Ramaphosa as President Jacob Zuma’s successor.
SEE ALSO: Dlamini-Zuma ship sinks as more provinces vote CR
The four Mpumalanga regional leaders want provincial leader DD Mabuza to leave the province and go serve as the deputy president of the ANC.
“The caucus was meant to send a message that delegates should know that we support NDZ and that this thing of Unity should not worry them,” a delegate who attended the KwaMhlanga caucus said on Friday morning.
“They did say that we should not go all over the place pronouncing people, but we should know that we are NDZ,” the source said, adding that of the over 170 Nkangala delegates, 147 came to the Mashilo meeting and agreed to support NDZ.
“Chirwa and Mashego spoke and reaffirmed our support for comrade Nkosazana,” the source told the reporter.
Dlamini-Zuma was during BGMs nominated by only 123 of the total Mpumalanga branches, Ramaphosa only 117 and Mabuza’s Unity receiving 223 branch nomination votes.
SEE ALSO: Mabuza’s hidden Unity agenda disappoints CR, NDZ camps
The regional leaders want Mabuza’s Unity delegates turned into NDZ votes in conference in order to allow him to be the deputy president.
Mashilo confirmed convening the meeting and said his other counterparts were invited to demonstrate to delegates the support of his region for NDZ.
“Let me not speak for the province, I’m not allowed to speak on its behalf,” Mashilo said when the reporter asked him whether as Mpumalanga they support NDZ, “but as Nkangala yes we support NDZ,” he said over the phone.
ALSO RELATED: Will Mabuza avail himself for deputy president position?
(edited by ZK)
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by 013NEWS Reporter | Dec 6, 2017 | Politics
She needed the support of KZN as the biggest ANC province and Mpumalanga but Limpopo and Gauteng are just some of the more dangerous provinces for her to emerge.
ANC presidential contender Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma is facing a tough journey as more and more branches come out to declare support for Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa.
She lost Gauteng and Limpopo, which both will send more than 1000 delegates combined, as well as Eastern Cape, the third largest ANC province, which will send over 640 delegates to the 54th national congress in Johannesburg.
Limpopo is the ANC’s fourth biggest province, allocated 643 delegates and Gauteng sixth – with 508 delegates.
A week ago Mpumalanga leader DD Mabuza pronounced Unity – snubbing both camps – and leaving Dlamini- Zuma with only North West, Free State and KZN.
The three cape provinces – Northern, Western and Eastern Cape – nominated Ramaphosa as well as Gauteng and Limpopo, giving him over 1 800 branches against Dlamini-Zuma’s 1 300.
SEE ALSO: Mabuza’s hidden Unity agenda disappoints CR, NDZ camps
The ANC will elect President Jacob Zuma’s successor at the party’s 54th national congress in Nasrec, Soweto on 16 – 20 December 2017.
(edited by MLM)
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by 013NEWS Reporter | Dec 4, 2017 | Politics
He says the Mpumalanga ANC is breaking party rules for not nominating anybody.
ANC presidential contender Mathews Phosa is filing court papers to have the Mpumalanga ANC provincial executive committee (PEC) dissolved.
He says the PEC violated party rules when it cajoled branches into nominating nobody during BGMs.
“The nomination guidelines are clear that a person with a name and surname must be nominated,” Phosa’s campaign organiser Ronnie Malomane said .
“Mabuza and the PEC misled the branches and we want the PEC to be disbanded,” he said.
He said they also want the court to declare the nomination processes that took place as lodged disputes were not attended to by the PEC and NEC.
SEE ALSO: Phosa reports Mpumalanga ANC to NEC
“We want the nomination process to be re-run because 35 branches lodged disputes and there was no report-back,” Malomane said.
On Friday, the ANC in Mpumalanga pronounced Unity for all the positions in the top 6 after this particular candidate received 223 nominations for the position of president against Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa’s 117 and Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma’s 123.
Though Dlamini-Zuma was announced as the winner for the nomination of president for her narrow defeat of Ramaphosa, provincial leader DD Mabuza said the province’s stance is Unity over any other contestant.
“Unity has won,” he said after the provincial general council had concluded at the Mbombela stadium on Friday evening.
Mandla Ndlovu, the ANC secretary, said it was fine if Phosa is taking them to court.
“It’s up to them. They can go to court and we’ll defend,” he said.
(edited by MLM)
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by 013NEWS Reporter | Dec 4, 2017 | Politics
He was previously that leader who would take the mic and lambaste all of President Jacob Zuma’s critics and was thought to be a member of the so-called Premier League but seems he has moved away from all of that.
Mpumalanga ANC chairman DD Mabuza is not backing down on his campaign for Unity and is prepared to “forge ahead” even if this doesn’t make him the deputy president.
Mabuza on Friday disappointed supporters of Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa and Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma who had hoped he would endorse their candidates for the fiercely contested position of ANC president, especially the NDZ camp that features him as the deputy president.
Than endorsing people, Mabuza chose to pronounce Unity as the presidential candidate who must win and lead the ANC after December 2017.
“We are talking about the aspiration of our people here, not individuals,” he told journalists after the Mpumalanga PGC had concluded.
The outcomes showed of the 463 Mpumalanga branches, only 123 nominated Dlamini-Zuma, 117 Ramaphosa and 223 Unity.
Dlamini-Zuma had to be announced as the winner after electoral officials refused to recognise votes cast as Unity, saying Unity was not a person and the 223 votes were therefore counted as abstentions.
Mabuza pronounced he supported Unity than one of the two contestants who needed his determining province to emerge in December.
“Individuals don’t matter in the ANC,” he said.
SEE ALSO: Mabuza continues to keep country guessing ahead of 54th congress
“You have elevated the debate into something else as if the president of the ANC is God. Its not. The ANC is owned by its own members, not leadership,” Mabuza said to journalists at the Mbombela stadium.
“Leadership is just there to guide the movement but is not God. So as members of the ANC we are going to guard, jealously, this movement,” he said.
Mabuza wants the ANC to discuss and come out with a person suitable to lead it as opposed to leaders contesting each other through slates, which is cause for the gradual death of the ANC.
He wants this candidate to be elected from the floor in congress than being pre-determined by slates.
He said this whole thing that he is pushing is not himself “but about the aspirations of the people”.
“I was never born to be a Premier or chairperson, I’m here solely because of the will of the people and tomorrow there will be someone else. There was someone before me and there was someone before that someone, so individuals will come and go but the aspiration of the people remain,” Mabuza said.
“So [if I’m not elected] I’m going to join the rank and file and move with them and I’m not going to be unhappy with that. At any given time the ANC must be led and we will follow. I was not born to lead all the time and I’m not going to fight for any position. It’s members of the ANC who will elect me and I’ll accept. I’m saying let’s find consensus. As a province we are peculiar, we have preached unity, still standing on those words today,” he said.
Mabuza addressed the PGC on Friday and said there will always be different opinions but the experience that the ANC got during the struggle will help it “resolve whatever differences that we have in order to achieve unity and make us a very formidable force towards the attainment of our strategic objectives”.
SEE ALSO: Mabuza is sure he’ll be elected in December
“As I conclude I want to reiterate that for us as Mpumalanga the ANC comes first and no one, no individual is bigger than the ANC. We must emerge with a strong and united ANC irrespective of the conference outcomes. We should elect a leadership collective, brave enough to make tough decisions to better the lives of our people. For those who will emerge as elected leadership should be no adoption of a triumphalist posture at the expense of the broader organisational goals. We cannot afford any split from our ranks. This is not about individuals but about the future of our country and generations and generations to come.
(edited by ZK)
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by 013NEWS Reporter | Nov 25, 2017 | Videos
He said he saw a Facebook post making the rounds of the list of anti-CR leaders whose branches nominated CR.
Mpumalanga ANC secretary Mandla Ndlovu has laughed off rumours claiming his branch nominated Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Ndlovu on Friday said he shares the same branch as Bohlabela ANC secretary Follas Sibuyi in Thulamahashi and that this branch nominated ‘Unity’ – meaning they didn’t put anybody’s name on the nomination forms.
SEE ALSO: ‘Unity’ leads Mpumalanga nominations
“I saw the list and I’m there. That’s a lie. My branch voted unity,” he said.
“Let them carry on with their malicious lies. It’s fine, everyone knows we voted unity,” said Ndlovu.
He added that his branch was the largest and will send six delegates to the congress and “I can give you all their numbers now”.
The branch of Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, who contests Ramaphosa for the ANC presidency, nominated Ramaphosa as well as that of Kebby Maphatsoe, the leader of the MKMVA, a supporter of NDZ.
Ndlovu said it’s a lie that his was one of those branches in NDZ circles that nominated CR.
Mpumalanga is expected to pronounce Dlamini-Zuma as their preferred candidate for the position of ANC president during a provincial general council to sit next week Friday.
“It will be a meeting where we will consolidate nominations,” Ndlovu said on Friday afternoon.
(edited by MLM)
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