Down to the wire
ANC’s Nasrec knockout and what it means for the economy
First published December 7, 2017. Lobbying and horse-trading in the countdown to the ANC’s most divided elective conference yet is intense. While Cyril Ramaphosa has most party branches behind him, other machinations could have Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma emerging on top. It all depends on how the branch delegates actually vote on the day.
The ANC’s make-or-break election race to succeed Jacob Zuma as president is billed as an epic battle between good and bad, but in politics there is perhaps no such thing. Deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa, with his nose in front a week before the ruling party’s crucial congress kicks off on December 16, may end up as Hillary Clinton to his chief rival Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma’s Donald Trump. Ramaphosa has received the majority of the party’s consolidated branch nominations, but it is far from over. The former union leader turned business mogul, favoured by Nelson Mandela to succeed him, looks set to take it — but only if we assume there will be no mass bribing of delegates or other skulduggery to make them deviate from their branch mandates when they cast their ballots at Nasrec, Johannesburg.
Also rippling beneath the surface is a sense that, as with the US poll, neither candidate inspires the confidence SA needs to restore growth and good governance after a decade of corruption...
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