Johannesburg – Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa was on Monday elected the new ANC president at the party’s 54th National Elective Conference currently underway at the Nasrec centre in the south of Johannesburg.
Ramaphosa won following a heavily contested race with 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 2440 votes.
Ramaphosa needed 2 389 votes to win.
Dlamini Zuma meanwhile, received 2261 votes.
Ramaphosa headed to the conference with a lead of 530 branch nominations after receiving a total of 1860 nominations from Limpopo, Gauteng, Eastern Cape, Western Cape and Northern Cape.
Dlamini Zuma, for her part, received 1330 from the party’s biggest and second-biggest provinces, KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga, and from Free State and North West.
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 4776 delegates were eligible to vote after an initial 5240 had applied.
