EDITORIAL: Ramaphosa is ahead — but it’s still open
The fight is far from over
A bookie would be hard-pressed to assign odds to who will emerge as the ANC’s 14th president at its December conference, as the race between Cyril Ramaphosa and Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma has become nail-bitingly close. Saddled with the unlucky 13th president, Jacob Zuma, for a decade longer than seems right, the ANC in less than a month elects his successor. By all accounts, it seems Ramaphosa is in the lead. This is credited largely to strong lieutenants mobilising support for him in Dlamini-Zuma’s KwaZulu Natal stronghold. Skilled lobbyists Bheki Cele and former KwaZulu Natal premier Senzo Mchunu have been unrelenting in their campaign on the ground in the ANC’s largest and most influential province. But the fight is far from over.
Mathematics suggests that Dlamini-Zuma should be ahead — if we assume she has 100% support from her KwaZulu Natal base, and she were to win the three "premier league" provinces (Mpumalanga, Free State and the North West), she’d tie-up 2,553 of the to...
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