By Ebi Kesiena
South Africa’s ruling ANC was due to elect a new leader this weekend after the country’s embattled president Cyril Ramaphosa pitched to steer the graft-tainted party for a second term.
Despite a tarnishing cash-heist scandal and vociferous internal opposition, Ramaphosa, 70, is tipped to win re-election as the head of the African National Congress (ANC).
But after 28 years in power, the party shaped by Nelson Mandela into the main weapon that ended apartheid faces deep rifts and declining support.
Its image has been stained by corruption, cronyism, nepotism and a lacklustre economic record.
In a three-hour-long address at a key ANC conference, Ramaphosa sought to project confidence and authority.
“The people of South Africa … expect us to have the courage and the honesty to recognise our shortcomings and the resolve to correct them,” he told some 4,500 ANC delegates at an events centre near Johannesburg.
Almost three decades after the end of white-minority rule, unemployment and crime rates are sky high, poverty and inequality remain widespread, and power cuts have hit record levels amid a worsening energy crisis.
Dozens of delegates largely supporters of corruption-tainted former president Jacob Zuma who was forced out by Ramaphosa — heckled Ramaphosa, chanting “Change! Change!” and banging on their tables.
“Let us exercise discipline, let us exercise political consciousness,” Ramaphosa said, urging attendees to debate issues instead of “shouting” and “howling at each other”.
The conference started several hours late on Friday but party officials said voting was still expected to take place on Saturday.
