The current South African vice president, Cyril Ramaphosa, has been elected as the new president of the historic African National Congress (ANC) party, which has dominated the country’s politics for decades.
In particular, Ramaphosa has obtained 2,440 of the 4,708 votes of delegates present, while Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma has obtained 2,261 votes, announced the spokesperson of the EleXions Agency – a state agency – Bontle Mpakanyane.
Ramaphosa has defeated his great rival, Dlamini-Zuma, ex-wife of the current South African president, Jacob Zuma.
This weekend the six most important positions of the party were renewed and finally there has been a confrontation between Ramaphosa and Dlamini-Zuma despite the fact that there was speculation about a possible division of positions within the Executive, the body that marks the political line and decides the appointment of parliamentarians.
The 54th National Congress of the ANC is held between December 16 and 20 in Gauteng, in the north of the country. The new president of the formation will be the candidate of the party for the general elections of 2019
Vice President Ramaphosa is a former union leader and one of the wealthiest people in South Africa. Her rival is ex-wife of Zuma, ex-minister and former president of the African Union Commission.
In the last 18 months, the Executive of the ANC has been the scene of tough disputes over the leadership of Zuma, especially since the last government reshuffle that the president made in March, in which he ceased Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan.
Zuma managed to overcome by a narrow margin a new motion of censure in the Parliament last August after several parliamentarians of its formation voted with the opposition.
