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Cyril Ramaphosa

JOHANNESBURG. — Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa was yesterday elected the new ANC president at the party’s 54th National Elective Conference at the Nasrec centre in the south of Johannesburg.

Ramaphosa won following a heavily contested race with Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma. He takes over from outgoing ANC President Jacob Zuma. Following much delay, which saw proceedings run hours late, the deputy president was declared the winner, snagging 2 440 votes.

Nkosazana-Dlamini Zuma

Ramaphosa needed 2 389 votes to win. Dlamini-Zuma meanwhile, received 2 261 votes.

The rest of the ANC top six are:

● David Mabuza — deputy president (2 538 votes)

● Senzo Mchunu — secretary-general (2 336 votes)

● Jessie Duarte — deputy secretary-general (2 474 votes)

● Gwede Mantashe — chairperson (2 418 votes)

● Paul Mashatile — treasurer-general (2 517 votes)

Jacob Zuma

Ramaphosa headed to the conference with a lead of 530 branch nominations after receiving a total of 1 860 nominations from Limpopo, Gauteng, Eastern Cape, Western Cape and Northern Cape. Dlamini-Zuma, for her part, received 1 330 from the party’s biggest and second-biggest provinces, KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga, and from Free State and North West.

Baleka Mbete

The ANC’s presidential position was set to be contested by seven candidates, including NEC members Jeff Radebe, Zweli Mkhize, Lindiwe Sisulu, Matthews Phosa, and Baleka Mbete, who has since thrown her weight behind Ramaphosa. The conference got off to a bumpy start as the proceedings were mired by numerous issues, including a delay in adopting credentials. In the end, a total of 4 776 delegates were eligible to vote after an initial 5 240 had applied. — IOL.