Backers of President Cyrikl Ramaphosa’s bid for a second term have surfaced with some among his supporters calling for unity and continuity under his leadership of the African National Congress and South Africa.
The ANC’s head of elections, Fikile Mbalula, has vowed to back Ramaphosa as both ANC and state President for a second term when the party holds its 55th National Elective Conference in Johannesburg in December.
Addressing ANC members at the Nkowankowa Stadium in Limpopo Province over the weekend, Mbalula said previous party leaders like former presidents Jacob Zuma and Thabo Mbeki went through their own turbulent times assured of ANC’s steadfast support through thick and thin.
Mbalula said this grace should also be shown toward Mr Ramaphosa, 69 who is coming under pressure over his government’s lacking of decisive leadership to knock Africa’s largest economy back into shape after a steep dip thanks to the coronavirus pandemic and the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
“We will never leave our president to the sharks. We must defend him. Others served their two terms, why can’t he be afforded the same opportunity?” Mbalula asked.
“If you don’t want him you can wait until the conference in December,” he said, amid loud cheers and applause from supporters of Mr Ramaphosa.
ANC provincial chairman and Limpopo premier, Stanley Mathabatha, warned other ANC grandees against contesting Ramaphosa’s hold onto the presidency, saying it would sow the seeds of more division within the party’s ranks and by extension the country.
“We have a president: what more do you want? On the 8th of January, when we said we would support President Ramaphosa for second term, some people said we were jumping the gun. What we were saying as the people of Limpopo province was that we will support unity,” Mathabatha said.
Speaking later, Ramaphosa said only a united ANC can take the country forward and solve its problems, adding that the meeting was about renewing one of Africa’s oldest political parties and strengthening its branches ahead of the 2024 national elections to be attended by nearly 4,000 delegates.
“We must revitalise the ANC. We must make the ANC loved by the people once again. We are uniting ourselves,” the president said.
He said the work that has been done in Limpopo to revive unity in the province was phenomenal, and “we want our branches to be alive all the time and get involved in the lives of our people,” Ramaphosa said.
NM/as/APA