The largest ANC branch in Ekurhuleni has given Naledi Pandor the nod to be Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa's running mate, agreeing to leave fellow contender Lindiwe Sisulu out in the cold.
Tlou Chokoe, chairman of the 601-member strong Enoch Sontonga branch situated in Ward 1, Ivory Park, near Midrand, yesterday said that its members had lost patience with Sisulu following failed efforts to get her to commit to Ramaphosa's slate.
Chokoe said branch members had turned against Sisulu after she insisted on running her own campaign to succeed President Jacob Zuma as ANC head next month. Her public rejection of the Ramaphosa campaign's overtures and her spat with secretary-general Gwede Mantashe had sealed her fate.
"We have always agreed with other branches that let's go with the name of comrade Lindiwe Sisulu. We appreciated her energy, her read-to-work attitude and we believe that she would be the right woman to occupy that position [deputy president] but while we were lobbying other branches, then we hear that comrade Lindiwe [is] lobbying Ramaphosa [to be her deputy].
"We could hear her saying, 'It's a Must', but funny enough, there were no branches [backing her]. We thought that by nominating her, she would stop with this thing of going to the media," said Chokoe.
The branch nominated Ramaphosa to become party president, with Mantashe getting the nod as party chairperson, Senzo Mchunu as secretary-general, former ANC youth league secretary-general Vuyiswa Tulelo as his deputy and Gauteng ANC chairman Paul Mashatile as treasurer-general.
Chokoe said the branch had agreed to propose that the treasurer-general position not be full time.
About 310 members attended yesterday's branch general meeting. They also nominated 70 people to serve on the party's national executive committee, including Nhlanhla Nene, David Mabuza and Mpho Tsedu.
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