Moment of truth for Ramaphosa & Mkhize in battle for ANC presidency

ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa finally locked horns with former health minister Zweli Mkhize during the much-anticipated ANC 55th national conference in Nasrec on Saturday evening.

When nominations got under way, the party’s elections committee chair Kgalema Motlante explained that there would be nominations for the top seven officials: the positions of president, deputy president, national chair, secretary-general, two deputy secretary-generals and the treasurer-general.

This after conference adopted a resolution to expand the party's official leadership from six to seven.

After the nomination of both Ramaphosa and Mkhize, there was a nomination from the floor from a delegate from KwaZulu-Natal who nominated Cogta minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.

When asked if she was available, Dlamini-Zuma, who was shaking her head as she stood up, declined nomination. The nomination process for the position then closed.

Earlier, while Motlanthe was explaining the rules and separating the voting and the non-voting delegates, a point of order was raised from a delegate from the Harry Gwala region in KZN. He said: “We want to nominate the top seven tonight.”

Motlanthe quickly corrected the delegate by explaining that on Saturday evening there would be a nomination process of the top seven and the voting would be done on Sunday morning.

Outgoing national chair Gwede Mantashe then asked non-voting delegates to be separated from those who were voting.

The nomination process got under way late on Saturday night.

LISTEN | ANC top 7 nominees finalised as NDZ declines nomination

TimesLIVE