POLITICAL NEWS - The African National Congress (ANC) delegates have spoken and elected Cyril Ramaphosa as their new president at the party conference held at Nasrec, Johannesburg. The announcement was made on Monday 18 December.
The much-waited conference saw the biggest number of presidential hopefuls the ANC has had, which include Baleka Mbete, Lindiwe Sisulu, Nkosazana-Dlamini-Zuma, Cyril Ramaphosa, Matthews Phosa, Jeff Radebe and Zweli Mkhize, all contending to succeed Jacob Zuma as ANC president.
However, at the end, only two people were contesting for the top position, Dlamini-Zuma and Ramaphosa.
A total of about 4 700 delegates cast their votes and Ramaphosa emerged victorious with 179 votes more than Dlamini-Zuma, who had received 2 261 votes.
Mpumalanga Premier David Mabuza won the deputy presidency position with 2 538 votes while his opponent Lindiwe Sisulu received 2 159.
Former secretary-general Gwede Mantashe will remain in the top six after he won the position of national chairperson.
Mantashe received 2 418 votes, as opposed to Nathi Mthethwa's 2 269.
Ace Magashule was elected incoming secretary-general, Jessie Duarte retained her position as deputy secretary-general and Paul Mashatile was elected as treasurer-general.
Ramaphosa is a former trade union leader who led the historic negotiations in the 1990s to end apartheid before launching a business career.
If the ANC wins the 2019 national election, he is expected to be the next president of South Africa, ending the Zuma era.
ARTICLE: ZOLANI SINXO, GEORGE HERALD JOURNALIST
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