By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has been re-elected as ANC president, beating Zweli Mkhize with 2476 votes to 1897 votes.
Ramaphosa beat Mkhize with 579 votes. There were four spoilt ballots and seven abstentions.
4 384 votes were cast, with two confiscated ballots because those voters were caught taking photographs of their ballots and they were reported to the police and upon realising that the may end up with criminal records, they offered to revoke their voting status, says Electoral Committee Chairperson Kgalema Motlanthe.
Paul Mashatile wins ANC deputy president vote
Paul Mashatile received 2178 votes to Ronald Lamola’s 315 and Oscar Mabuyane’s 1858.
Gwede Mantashe wins post of National Chairperson
Gwede Mantashe beat won the positions of National Chairperson with 2062 votes to David Masondo’s 230 and Stanley Mathabatha’s 2018.
Mantashe was accompanied on stage by ANC leaders from the Eastern Cape. He took his seat next to Ramaphosa.
Fikile Mbalula elected ANC secretary general
Fikile Mbalula was elected ANC secretary general with 1692 to Phumulo Masualle’s 1590 and Mdumiseni Ntuli’s 1080.
Nomvula Mokonyane elected ANC first deputy secretary general
Nomvula Mokonyane won with 2195 votes, compared to Tina Joemat-Pettersson’s 2145 votes.
Maropene Ramokgopa elected second deputy secretary general
Maropene Ramokgopa defeats Ronalda Nolumango by 2373 votes to 1948.
Gwen Ramokgopa wins treasurer general position
Gwen Ramokgopa, with 1809 votes, defeated Pule Mabe, who had 1652 votes and Bejani Chauke who had 590 votes. Mzwandile Masina, who withdrew from the race received 281 votes.
Ramaphosa, Mantashe and Mbalula managed to consolidate enough votes to beat a disorganised Mkhize-led alliance.
Ramaphosa’s victory, announced during the ANC’s national conference, almost assures him a second term as president after elections scheduled for 2024.The chosen leader of the ANC, the party with the most seats in Parliament, has become the nation’s president in every election since 1994.
While the results were a relief for Ramaphosa, and his allies after a bruising battle, he will have little time to breathe easy.
He confronts a mountain of challenges, from a government that can barely keep the lights on or protect its residents against crime to a party that has plummeted in popularity from its days as the heroic liberator that unseated the apartheid regime.
At 110 years old, the ANC is Africa’s oldest liberation movement. Its decades-long fight to defeat the racial caste system of apartheid thrust it into international prominence and produced global icons of the freedom struggle, including Nelson Mandela, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, Oliver Tambo and Charlotte Maxeke.
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