The internal division in the ANC’s ranks, as well as the dissatisfaction from the side of its alliance partners, the SACP and Cosatu, became evident this weekend.
Tensions ran high within the ANC over the nomination of their preferred candidates given the ANC’s election in December. Allegations are continuously made by the two camps of fraud on member numbers, and meddling with the electoral procedures. In some cases, the disputes will have to be settled in court, while re-election will have to be held in many other places.
Even the party’s secretary-general is seriously under fire. Gwede Mantashe’s head is claimed through secrecy after declaring that he supports Cyril Ramaphosa as successor to Jacob Zuma.
Allegations that members were bribed to vote in particular for Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma also came into the light. In one case, the social media was buzzing over the fact that the mayor of Bethlehem, Lindiwe Makhalema, was apparently caught over the weekend with R2.8 million in cash in her vehicle, money to be used to convince ANC members to vote for Dlamini-Zuma. The allegations have not been confirmed yet, although observers believe that where there is smoke, there is a fire.
Cosatu has now called on his members to attend the ANC conference in large numbers “to ensure that everything runs smoothly” and to vote for Cyril Ramaphosa.
The dismissed minister of higher education and leader of the Communist Party, Blade Nzimande, also showed his evident frustration when he accused the ANC of acting like an elder brother in the alliance, saying that it cannot be expected from the SACP to recruit support for the ANC while the ruling party’s decision-making process excludes the SACP.
Read the original article in Afrikaans on Die Vryburger
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