The ANC Leadership Race !!!

On the eve of the ANC’s election of its leadership, my sense is that both the two leading candidates for the position of president of the organization (NDZ and CR) are deeply flawed individuals and under different circumstances there would far better individuals who could contest the top spot. Whichever individual between the two is elected president of the ANC, the organization is going to face a bruising campaign against other parties leading up to the 2019 general elections because of who will be leading the ANC, assuming that it’s either CR or NDZ. 

Nominations by the ANC branches have shown that CR is a preferred candidate for the role of president. Save for those branches, especially in Mpumalanga where voters either abstained or voted for “Unity”. This means the representatives of these branches which did not vote for anyone at the branch level go into the ANC elective conference with the latitude to vote for any candidate of their choice. This therefore could leave some room for NDZ to potentially close the gap between herself and CR to a point where CR could win in a close race or even be pipped by NDZ. 

Having said so, the biggest shock that could come out of the ANC’s elections is for anyone other than CR to be elected president of the organization. Should that happen, the ANC will find itself saddled with a major, major credibility and trust deficit. But politics being politics, be prepared to be shocked and for the unexpected.