Dlamini-Zuma will be the new ANC president‚ says Mahumapelo

17 December 2017 - 15:52
By Claudi Mailovich
ANC North West chairman Supra Mahumapelo. File photo.
Image: Gallo Images / Sowetan / Tiro Ramatlhatse ANC North West chairman Supra Mahumapelo. File photo.

ANC North West chairman Supra Mahumapelo is convinced that come Monday Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma will be the new ANC president.

Nominations for the position of president and the top officials will take place later on Sunday‚ after credentials were adopted on Sunday morning.

Mahumapelo‚ who is part or the so-called ANC “premier league”‚ told journalists that they were experienced in the field of politics and lobbying‚ using the document The Eye of the Needle‚ "so comrade Nkosazana is going to be the president by tomorrow".

Mahumapelo said they were so comfortable with the number of delegates supporting Dlamini-Zuma‚ that North West "volunteered" to exclude 52 of its delegates who were from the branches that were nullified by a high court judgment.

"Because the numbers were just too huge for us to worry on the side of mam' Nkosazana‚" Mahumapelo told journalists on the sidelines of the conference.

The race for president of the ruling party is in essence a two-horse race between Dlamini-Zuma and deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa.

Mahumapelo said analysts‚ who have touted Ramaphosa as the favourite‚ made a mistake while calculating delegates‚ as some branches had more delegates than others.

“They look at the nominations and they say it's now uhuru (freedom). It is not yet uhuru until you look at every delegate‚” he said.

He said they were talking to delegates who supported presidential hopefuls that did not make it onto the ballot‚ such as treasurer general Zweli Mkhize‚ Mathews Phosa and Jeff Radebe‚ asking them to support the perspective of radical socio-economic transformation.

- BusinessLIVE