Free State ANC nominates Zuma, Mbete

2012-11-30 09:36

(Picture: Sapa)

Sasolburg - The Free State ANC nomination conference held in Sasolburg finally came to an end at 08:08 on Friday morning.

The top six positions had been finalised in the early hours of the morning. President Jacob Zuma was elected unopposed as president, while current national chairperson Baleka Mbete was nominated to be the deputy president of the ruling party.

In the announcement of the results released at 04:30, Mbete led with 235 of the 249 votes.

She was followed by Cyril Ramaphosa who received nine votes while Kgalema Motlanthe only got two.

Premier Ace Magashule received the highest votes at 233 for the national chairperson. He was followed by Mbete with eight, KwaZulu-Natal Premier, Zweli Mkhize with one vote while Ramaphosa received none.

A total of 223 voters said Gwede Mantashe should retain his position as secretary general of the party. Jessy Duarte received 12 votes for the position and Mbete got one.

Duarte topped the list for the position of deputy secretary general with 235 votes, followed by Mantashe with six and Thandi Modise with three.

Mkhize led the polls for treasury-general with 229 votes followed by Mathews Phosa with four votes and Magashule with three. Tito Mboweni, Modise and Ramaphosa received one vote each.

NEC voting

After the top six positions had been finalised, the conference began the process of completing the nomination of the other 80 members of the national executive committee of the African National Congress at 06:40.

There were further delays when the electoral agency announced that the NEC did not have the required minimum representation of women.

Six men had to be removed from the list and four women had to be voted in. This was done by a show of hands, which required 75% of the vote.

The results had to be re-read as per protocol. The electoral commissioner (from the ANC national office) and the electoral agency then reconciled the lists after the withdrawal of names and addition of women.

It was discovered that the total number of additional member nomination was one person short.

Presidential spokesperson Mac Maharaj received the overwhelming majority vote to claim the last nomination from the province.

This completed the NEC’s 86 members.

Voting at the conference began at 01:00 - nine hours later than scheduled.

- SAPA