As the race for the ANC presidency enters its final phase this week, the focus is set to be on voting delegates rather than branch nominations in a tight race that could swing either way between Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa and MP Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.

It is a dangerous phase in which the will of branches could be subverted through paying off voting delegates who will cast their secret ballots at the ANC’s 54th national conference, which takes place in Gauteng in two weeks’ time. Both camps set about tallying their delegate numbers over the weekend as provincial general councils in seven of SA’s nine provinces placed Ramaphosa in the lead, based on their tally of branch nominations. Following the provincial general councils, the branch nominations have Ramaphosa on 1,278 votes and Dlamini-Zuma on 800. Unity vote Mpumalanga opted not to name a preferred candidate, pronouncing instead in favour of "unity" after about 223 of the province’s branches wrote "unity" on the nomi...

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