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President Cyril Ramaphosa and his staunch allies emerged all smiles from the tense one-day special ANC National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting on Friday.
This was after the majority of 86 ANC NEC members agreed that the party’s Integrity Commission’s Phala Phala report should be debated at the upcoming ANC 55th elective conference, set for Friday to Monday next week in Nasrec, Joburg.
The decision paved Ramaphosa’s path to contest for re-election as ANC president without the headache of having to deal with the Integrity Commission’s report on the raging Phala Phala saga that had threatened to derail his second term.
There were fears that Ramaphosa’s opponents would try to use the Integrity Commission’s report to block him from contesting the top position.
However, they were left scratching their heads after the NEC – where Ramaphosa has cemented his support since taking over as ANC president five years ago – decided to defer debate on the report to the conference.
The findings of the Integrity Commission are not yet known.
The report will now form part of the organisational report for the national conference. Afterwards, it will be put on the table of the 86 new ANC NEC members who will be elected at the conference.
Ramaphosa’s internal ANC enemies – including Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and Tony Yengeni – were hoping to use the Phala Phala report to sink him.
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But his backers – led by ANC chairman Gwede Mantashe – formed a ring of steel around him and are said to have stopped him from resigning.
More than 4,000 voting ANC delegates from across the country will vote for new leaders, who will lead the fractured party for five years until the next conference.
The Phala Phala report opened a floodgate of criticism against Ramaphosa after the Section 89 panel chaired by retired chief justice Sandile Ngcobo released it last week.
The panel found that Ramaphosa has a case to answer stemming from the $600,000 robbery cover-up at his Phala Phala Farm in Limpopo back in February 2020.
The money was allegedly hidden in a sofa and not declared to the South African Reserve Bank.
Ramaphosa has since taken the report on review, effectively blocking the party from taking any action against him until the review is heard in the Constitutional Court.
And while the country’s rolling blackouts were ramped up to stage 6 this week, ANC spokesperson Pule Mabe said ANC’s “top six will monitor on a daily basis progress at Eskom”.
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