The crucial ANC national conference to decide President Cyril Ramaphosa’s fate kicked off with a rocky start with jeerers chanting “change, change, change, change”.
The ANC meeting which started several hours later than planned had former President Jacob Zuma in attendance. He was greeted with loud cheers when he walked in, disrupting Ramaphosa’s speech even further.
Delegates from Zuma’s KwaZulu-Natal province started humming anti-Ramaphosa songs as he tried to proceed with his speech.
ANC chairperson Gwede Mantashe asked security officers to intervene. Ramaphosa hopes to be re-elected as party leader at the ANC meeting despite a damaging recent Phala Phala scandal. His closest rival is former health minister, Zweli Mkhize, who has also been enmeshed in graft accusations.
Hundreds of delegates sang anti-Ramaphosa songs preventing the chairperson of the ANC from declaring the conference open.
The president escaped an impeachment inquiry earlier this week when most of his party’s MPs voted against adopting a report which found he may have breached anti-corruption legislation, following the theft of a large sum of cash from his farm.
Meanwhile, the ANC has dropped charges against Dlamini Zuma and others who bucked party line in parliament. The matter will be ‘processed’ by the new national executive committee being elected at Nasrec.