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JOHANNESBURG. — South Africa’s ruling African National Congress nominated just two candidates to run for its top job on Saturday, leaving President Cyril Ramaphosa facing the health minister he suspended over corruption allegations in a party vote.
The winner will have the ANC’s blessing to run for president in 2024 elections under its banner, historically a shoo-in for the country’s top job ever since the party’s leading light Nelson Mandela ended white minority rule in 1994. The ANC’s five-day conference in Johannesburg has exacerbated a rancourous divide between its two main rival power blocs, one coalescing around the incumbent President Ramaphosa and the other around former President Jacob Zuma.
Former health minister Zweli Mkhize, who emerged as the sole challenger to President Ramaphosa, is allied to Zuma’s faction.
President Ramaphosa put Mkhize on special leave last year in the wake of allegations that his department irregularly awarded Covid-19-related contracts to a company controlled by his former associates.
Mkhize, who also ran against President Ramaphosa when the latter won the position in 2017, denies wrongdoing. Both had been nominated ahead of the conference, and no additional candidates were added from the floor as nominations were concluded around midnight on Saturday.
After a fractious start to the gathering last Friday, which saw President Ramaphosa subjected to jeers, chants and calls to quit by opponents, delegates at the ANC’s conference must decide which candidate is best placed to revive its fortunes. — Reuters
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