Johannesburg - Branches revolted against outgoing ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa inside the Nasrec conference centre on Friday.
Party members openly called for him to go while others called for him to step aside.
Delegates attending the ANC’s 55th National Elective Conference, mostly from KwaZulu-Natal, made it clear that they did not want Ramaphosa to get a second term.
Some delegates carried placards calling for Ramaphosa to step aside, Phala Phala, Mr. Loadshedding, and "akabuyi (he is not coming back) and sang unfavourable songs about him, while others called for Dr. Zweli Mkhize to rise to the occasion.
While Ramaphosa was delivering his political report for the five years as president, former president Jacob Zuma, and his entourage entered the conference room, that led to outgoing NEC members and NWC to stand up, delegates broke out singing "wenzeni u-Zuma", (what has Zuma done).
For a few minutes, delegates sang and gave Zuma a warm welcome. It was hard to watch Ramaphosa’s body language; he appeared very upset, yet he kept his composure.
KZN chairperson Siboniso Duma had to rise and call his province’s delegates to maintain discipline.
The revolt was also endorsed by former president Jacob Zuma, who on the eve of the conference, initiated a private prosecution of Ramaphosa.
Ramaphosa has been summoned to appear in court on January 19, 2023, to face a charge of being an "accessory after the fact" in the same private prosecution Zuma is pursuing against prosecutor Billy Downer and journalist Karyn Maughan for disclosing a document concerning Zuma’s medical state.
Through his spokesperson, Vincent Magwenya, Ramaphosa has described the move by Zuma as an abuse of the legal process and a perversion of the private prosecution provision.
Ramaphosa has set his eyes on the position of president, and he is going head-to-head with Mkhize.
Political analyst Ongama Mtinka says President Ramaphosa’s faction of the ANC is itching to deal decisively with presidential hopeful Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.
Dlamini-Zuma had been informed that she would be facing a disciplinary process for voting for the adoption of the Section 89 report, which revealed that Ramaphosa had a case to answer in relation to the concealment of a robbery on his farm in 2020.
Approximately $4 million (R70m) was stolen from Ramaphosa's farm during the robbery.
The money was hidden in couches and under a bed's mattress.
"Our mandate is clear, and that is to vote Ramaphosa out of office. He does not care about us but cares about Indians and white people. He has collapsed this party, with all of its structures disbanded. We will do what we can to vote him out, and if he uses money to buy the conference, there would be nothing else for us to do, but we would have done what was in our power to do," said a delegate from KZN, who declined to be named.
The conference began hours later than expected. By midday, over 700 delegates were still at a nearby registration centre, hampered by technical difficulties. Some were told that their faces did not match their names on the system, which meant that they had to re-register.
Earlier yesterday, outgoing ANC Chairperson Gwede Mantashe said the conference would be delayed due to a large number of delegates who had yet to register.
Meanwhile, all eyes are on ANC Integrity Committee chair George Mashamba when a report on Phala Phala Farmgate is delivered in a closed session on Saturday morning.
ntombi.nkosi@inl.co.za
The Star