Former President Jacob Zuma has reportedly lobbied senior members of the Radical Economic Transformation (RET) faction to support the candidacy of Nkasazana Dlamini-Zuma.
Zuma’s core supporters in the ANC’s RET faction rejected a proposal to nominate Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Dlamini-Zuma as the party’s presidential candidate.
According to reports, Zuma has lobbied senior members of the RET faction to support Dlamini-Zuma’s candidacy at the ANC’s upcoming national elective conference in December.
However, The Witness has since revealed that a significant number of the faction’s members have abandoned it.
An ANC national executive committee member affiliated with the RET faction said Dlamini-Zuma was “definitely not the preferred RET candidate”.
“While most comrades remain steadfast in their support [former] President Zuma, they disagree with him on who should be the face of the RET faction running for the national conference.
The prevailing view at RET is that the current political climate calls for a militant, vocal and outspoken candidate.
“We don’t believe this comrade of the NDZ [Nkosazana D l a m i n i – Z u m a ] meets these requirements,” he said.
Former uMkhonto weSizwe military veterans association spokesman Karl Niehaus, who is a prominent member of the ANC RET faction and a key Zuma supporter, said issues surrounding candidates for the party’s December elective conference were still unresolved.
“Once the decision is made, the public will be informed,” he said.
In the run-up to the 2017 conference, Dlamini-Zuma, who was backed by the ANC’s KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Executive Council (PEC), was supported by 433 provincial branches, while only 193 KZN ANC branches supported President Cyril Ramaphosa.
This time, however, the ANC PEC, which has yet to endorse Dlamini-Zuma or any other candidate, says it will back the candidate with the highest number of votes in the ANC branch nomination process currently underway in the province. .
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