ANC ELECTION
NATASHA MARRIAN: Murky Mabuza is playing a dicey game
While David Mabuza came across as a man in charge at the Mpumalanga conference, the two warring factions have seen through his facade
Will Mpumalanga chairman David Mabuza turn out to be the Tokyo Sexwale of the Nasrec conference? At the ANC’s fateful 53rd national conference, Sexwale was in the running for the presidency, with the support of a province — albeit the smaller Gauteng — when he realised he would lose and opted to throw his weight behind Jacob Zuma.
Mabuza, long part of the Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma slate, pushed for a bizarre "nomination" for "unity" at his province’s general council last week instead of openly endorsing Dlamini-Zuma, the candidate who obtained the majority from the branches. The ANC election agency’s Dren Nupen read out the results of the branch nomination process in a marquee at the Mbombela Stadium on Friday. After announcing the numbers for each candidate — 123 for Dlamini-Zuma and 117 for her opponent, ANC deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa — she told the energetic gathering of ANC faithful there had been 223 "abstentions". As if on cue, the crowd greeted her pronouncement with...
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