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Critical ANC vote in January is decider
By Nsikan Ikpe
A renewed showdown may presently be imminent between the camps of ousted South African President, Jacob Zuma and his successor, Cyril Ramaphosa.
This is on account of the flagging off of the process for selecting candidates for the ruling party ahead of next year’s parliamentary polls.
As things stand now, Zuma has already emerged as a likely candidate at the provincial level.
This then leaves him with the next hurdle of securing a final critical vote at the national level of selections within the ruling African National Congress in South Africa that has presently been scheduled to take place on January 4 and 5, 2019.
Should he scale the process and emerge a candidate on the platform of the party, all that would be left then would be for the deposed president to formally accept being nominated and then go on to run and win in the General Elections proper.
And in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a final wave of tension, conflict and intrigues has gripped the nation even as the candidates for the long-delayed presidential polls engage in a round of last minute manouvres ahead of voting on Sunday December 30.
The elections had earlier been scheduled to hold on Sunday December 23 but were postponed following a mystery fire that gutted electoral materials that had been procured for the contest.
Outgoing President Joseph Kabila has never hidden his reluctance to quit the stage and even when he is believed to have presently plotted a Putin-type one-term-off return manoeuvre, the fact of his favoured stand-in successor, Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary trailing other well-heeled opposition players like former Prime Minister Etienne Tshikeshiedi and Martin Fayulu threaten even that complex plot.
(Above) South Africa’s deposed President, Jacob Zuma
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