South Africa in 2023: planning for a general election

POLITICAL PERSPECTIVE

- Theo Venter

The outcome of the ANC’s 55th National Conference held in mid-December 2022 was always going to hang in the balance.

This was especially the case given that the alleged concealment of the theft of a large sum of money from President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala farm seemed to cause serious damage to his chances of being re-elected as the party’s president for a second term.

However, when Ramaphosa threatened to resign at the beginning of that month and was convinced to stay by influential leaders in the ANC and big business, everything changed.

The motion to accept retired chief justice Sandile Ngcobo’s independent panel report to Parliament on the Phala Phala allegations was defeated by the ANC on 13 December, and so ended opposition parties’ initiatives to impeach Ramaphosa.

TOP SEVEN OFFICIALS

More than 4 500 conference delegates elected a new ‘top seven’ to lead the ANC. Ramaphosa was re-elected as president, with Paul Mashatile as his deputy and Gwede Mantashe as national chairperson.

Fikile Mbalula is now ANC secretary-general, and his first and second deputies are Nomvula Mokonyane and Maropene Ramokgopa respectively. Dr Gwen Ramokgopa is the party’s new treasurer-general. The 80 members of the ANC’s National Executive Committee (NEC) were also elected, and Ramaphosa is now in a much stronger position than he was after the 2017 conference.