Despite growing calls for second term, Ramaphosa opts to wait for ANC branches

Go and ask the branches.

This was the answer given by President Cyril Ramaphosa on Saturday when asked if he was available to serve for another term as leader of the ruling party.

“That has to be answered by the branches. I am not a branch of the ANC and I will never be a branch of the ANC. So that has to be answered by the branches,” he said.

Asked whether he was available for a second term, he said: “Go and ask the branches.”

He went on to say, “In the end, once nominations have happened, then the questions come: ‘We have nominated you, what do you say?’ Stick around for that.”

The calls for Ramaphosa to be given another chance were loud during the Letsema campaign in Tzaneen, Limpopo on Saturday.

NEC member Fikile Mbalula made his views known: “President [Nelson] Mandela in 1994 was the president of the ANC and was the first black president. We defended him as an ANC.

“They said President Thabo Mbeki was aloof. We defended him. We took him to the people and the ANC won with a two-thirds majority.

“Then we had president Jacob Zuma as a president with many problems. We defended Zuma. And now it’s Ramaphosa. A man with the truth and they say ... don’t defend the president.

“Ramaphosa did not want to be the president but he is the president of the ANC today. He was elected in Nasrec and I was part of the people who initially did not support him but I ended up supporting him.

“And I am not begging for a job from him, I am doing what the movement sent me to do. We will never leave our president to the sharks, we must defend him. And if you guys still want him to be the president, there is no problem there.

“It’s not a problem. Some served their two terms — why can’t he also serve his second term? Ramaphosa’s problem during the sixth administration was Covid-19. Covid-19 led to job losses and brought lots of problems and Ramaphosa ended up fighting Covid-19 for the country.”

Limpopo ANC chair Stan Mathabatha reaffirmed the stance of the province on supporting Ramaphosa: “In Ramaphosa we have a president, what else do you want? You don’t need anything.

“On January 8, when we said we will support president Ramaphosa for a second term, some people said we are jumping the gun but we knew what we were doing.

“What we were simply saying to the ANC and the people of South Africa was that as a province of Limpopo going forward in this revolutionary movement and organisation, we will support unity.”

Mathabatha reminded branches that in 1997 during the conference of the ANC in Mahikeng, Mbeki was elected as president. “When Mandela presented a baton to Thabo Mbeki, he warned us and said the day when the presidency of the ANC is contested the ANC will be divided.”

Mathabatha told ANC members that perhaps they did not believe what the late statesman said. “So in December I am going to present to you a president who has never stolen from the state coffers. But South African society will surprise you — instead of sympathising with him for being robbed in Phala Phala, they are saying Ramaphosa stole money.”

Mathabatha said those who stole state money are the ones calling for Ramaphosa to be removed.

Mopani regional chair Pule Shayi said the region reaffirms its support for Ramaphosa’s second term.

“This time we are going to subject ourselves to the leadership of the province as they guide us in a more consolidated manner as we usher you to the 55th national elective conference of the ANC,” he said.

“In the top seven that’s going to be amended, we prefer 50/50 women representation there and we expect young people to be in that space.”

Shayi told Ramaphosa that the old guard needs to hand over to the youth who will reenergise the organisation and make it more progressive.

While addressing branches Ramaphosa told ANC members he too wanted to see more women in the party's national executive committee (NEC).

“Young people must come into the leadership of the ANC and the NEC level so that we can truly renew the ANC and become more gender-sensitive.”

He told branches that the delegates they send to the national conference in December must be serious delegates.

“We don’t want people who will go to Nasrec and end up not attending the conference,  instead you find them partying in the streets of Johannesburg and drinking alcohol. We want serious delegates who are going to the branches.”

He said every branch must get a report back from delegates deployed to the conference.

Ramaphosa also told branches they needed to be entrenched in their communities.

“As we renew and reposition the ANC, I want us to demonstrate to our people that the ANC cares. If every branch of the ANC can be alive, awake, alert, creative and innovative in everything it does, we have already won the 2024 elections.”

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