By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The election of the African National Congress’ (ANC) top seven is expected to dominate proceedings at the ANC’s 55th national elective conference in Nasrec, on Sunday.
While the main focus of the conference is on who emerges as the next president of the organisation, the race for deputy president is also expected to be closely watched.
Fullview understands that the candidate for Deputy President for Cyril Ramaphosa slate will be Oscar Mabuyane after a deal was reached.
During a meeting with delegates, senior Ramaphosa lobbyist Mondli Gungubele said only one name was needed to mobilise support around.
“There is a danger of going there with many names because we love them all, we can take all of them because we love them all, but nothing will come out of the results.
“If we make sure that we have one, we stand a chance of getting what we love. I appeal, comrades, that not everything we are saying here, not everyone supported everyone, but we understood the bigger picture,” he added.
Lamola is one of three candidates who have met the 25 percent branch nomination threshold for the position of deputy president.
The other two candidates are Paul Mashatile and Mabuyane.
Lamola secured 427 branch nominations against Mashatile’s 1,791 and Mabuyane’s 397 branch nominations.
The concession by the Ramaphosa caucus was the first sign that Mabuyane or Lamola could become part of the ANC top seven, But the two were still up against Mashatile, who has the largest nomination of all 16 candidates in the top six positions second to Ramaphosa.
With David Mabuza’s absence and a possible final presidential term for Ramaphosa means the position of deputy president will carry even greater weight after the conference.
Meanwhile, Eastern Cape’s suspended PEC member Andile Lungisa who was nominated for the treasurer position but later disqualified was raised from the floor — the ANC reaffirmed its barring and Lungisa will not be on the ballot.
NEC member Lindiwe Sisulu’s was nominated from the floor and she accepted the nomination. However, she failed to garner enough support from delegates to appear on the ballot.
Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, also a critic of Ramaphosa, declined a nomination to run for leader of the nation’s governing party.
Dlamini-Zuma narrowly lost to Ramaphosa in the contest to lead the African National Congress in 2017
A new position — created at the conference, that of a second deputy secretary-general — saw ANC Women’s League national coordinator Maropene Ramokgopa rise to contest. She will go against Western Cape’s Ronalda Nalumango who co-ordinates the province’s interim committee.
The ANC completed the registration of 4 426 voting delegates attending its five-yearly conference , a process that was dogged by a series of delays, clearing the way for its internal elections to proceed.