Nkosazana keeping cards close to her chest

14 December 2015 - 03:05 By Matthew Savides

Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma is tight-lipped about whether she will enter the fray to replace Jacob Zuma as the country's next president. She refused to talk about rumours that a powerful ANC lobby was pushing for her to replace the president when she was questioned after the launch of the KwaZulu-Natal ANC Youth League volunteer programme in Pietermaritzburg yesterday.The ANC's "premier league" faction - said to be led by the premiers of the Free State, North West and Mpumalanga - is reportedly pushing for Dlamini-Zuma to take over from her former husband. It has already succeeded in having its preferred candidates elected to leadership positions in the ANC youth and women's leagues. The faction is opposed to the presidential aspirations of deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa.The ANC's elective conference, at which the party presidency will be contested, will be held in December 2017.The recently elected KwaZulu-Natal leadership, the provincial youth league and the highly-influential eThekwini regional leaders, voted at a controversial elective conference this weekend. They are all linked to the premier league.Dlamini-Zuma said yesterday: "Today we are here to launch the volunteer core of the ANC; volunteers who are going to go around mobilising people to vote for the ANC."That's what I'm going to talk about, nothing else."She said it was essential that the volunteer programme be strengthened ahead of next year's local government elections...

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