MABUYANE: EC WILL MAKE SURE RAMAPHOSA IS RE-ELECTED AS ANC PRESIDENT

Eastern Cape ANC chairperson Oscar Mabuyane said Cyril Ramaphosa had championed renewal of the governing party and he must be given another five years to focus on this task.

ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa at the party's Eastern Cape elective conference on 9 May 2022. Picture: Abigail Javier/EWN

Tshidi Madia

JOHANNESBURG - Eastern Cape African National Congress (ANC) chairperson Oscar Mabuyane said President Cyril Ramaphosa must avail himself for a second term during the party’s national elective conference in December.

Mabuyane addressed party delegates in East London on Monday after being re-elected as the ANC’s Eastern Cape chairperson during the party's elective conference.

He said Ramaphosa had championed renewal of the governing party and he must be given another five years to focus on this task.

Mabuyane said Ramaphosa was the president the country needed and the ANC leadership in the that province would make sure that he was re-elected to ensure unity and transformation of the party.

This is a significant boost to Ramaphosa's re-election campaign because the ANC in the Eastern Cape is the governing party's second biggest province after KwaZulu-Natal.

However, in the same tone, Mabuyane has warned that their support must no longer be taken for granted.

He said in the past, Eastern Cape ANC delegates had been used as voting fodder and this must come to a halt come December.

INTERFERENCE

Mabuyane is the latest provincial leader to slam national leaders interfering in the political life of his province as they shop for support ahead of the December elective conference.

He said when national leaders come to their province, they need to add value.

Mabuyane made the remarks at a media briefing earlier on Monday following his win at the party's ninth provincial conference.

Just last month, KwaZulu-Natal’s Sihle Zikalala made similar remarks calling on the leadership of the organisation to call those meddling in their provincial and regional affairs to order.

Mabuyane said some leaders were dormant from the time they were elected, only starting to come alive as contest season kicked in.

“Because the conferences start activating them and there are people who get elected based on proximity and use those positions self-aggrandisement.”