FRIDAY BRIEFING | Torn Asunder: Fragmented and broken, new ANC leadership must work towards 2024

Regardless of whether Ramaphosa gets his second term or if the RET faction wins in December, the ANC is going to need to unify ahead of 2024.

EDITORIAL Torn Asunder: Fragmented and broken, new ANC leadership must work towards 2024 In just over 10 weeks, ANC delegates will have chosen their new leadership, one expected to lead the party into the electoral contest in the 2024 elections. Cyril Ramaphosa is vying for a second term as party president and has hopes of an ANC victory (or at least a manageable coalition) to secure the presidency of the country again. He already has the endorsement of six provinces of the ANC to lead the party. But earlier this week, KwaZulu-Natal, the party's biggest voting bloc, threw its weight behind Dr Zweli Mkhize, despite his alleged links to the Digital Vibes scandal. But as far as coherent endorsements go, this is where it ends. There are significant diversities (and sharp differences) from the provinces on who should make up the party's top leadership (known as the top six), which means whoever claims the party crown will have a diverse group of leaders to manage. With the party limping towards the 2024 elections – this is possibly not what the party would like or what it really needs. The accommodation reached after 2017, when two distinct slogans - one of radical economic transformation and another from the Ramaphosa side, focusing on unity and renewal - led to the 2017 conference emerging with the clumsy "towards unity, renewal and radical socio-economic transformation". This subsequently reflected in the clumsy fragmentation in the ANC ANC branches and delegates seem to have taken their cue from this and are extending it into the leadership realm, seemingly forging a kind of unity among candidates from seemingly different sides of the leadership divides. This could either forge unity or consolidate fragmentary approaches to the party and policy. Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection's Susan Booysen, political analyst Tinyiko Maluleke and University of Johannesburg's Siphamandla Zondi write for us in this week's Friday Briefing, examining the toll of the internal battles on the ANC and the challenges facing the incoming president. Enjoy your weekend. Vanessa Banton Opinions editor The ANC beyond the RET bunker - last-chance power manoeuvres As multiple cross-provincial power unions take shape in the next three months, there will be attempts to make believe new intra-ANC alliances will bring an alternative, directly and indirectly, writes Susan Booysen. Read More What happens to a dream destroyed? Reflections on the ANC's elective conference I wish that amidst the singing and the foot-stomping, the ANC's 2022 elective conference will spare a moment to consider the fraying dream, that is blowing in the wind, writes Tinyiko Maluleke.  Read More Will the RET forces win in December? If we don't remember that the ANC is, by design, a broad church that accommodates various and sometimes diverse ideological positions – liberal and socialist, nationalist and internationalist, patriarchal and feminist – we might never understand how it resolves this jostling on the conference floor, writes Siphamandla Zondi.  Read More CARTOON BY CARLOS: Switch them all off Editor's Picks Elmien du Plessis | Land, Law and (Afrikaner) Nostalgia The ending of apartheid disrupted the Afrikaner identity. Afrikaners had to, and still have to, find ways to adapt, Elmien du Plessis said in her inaugural lecture as a full professor at North-West University. Read more Mbhazima Shilowa | The ANC-led tripartite alliance is dead! Long live the tripartite alliance! If Cosatu is serious about the configuration of the alliance it should focus on content and not the form, writes Mbhazima Shilowa. Read more Mpumelelo Mkhabela | Maimane as foreign affairs minister? His new Bosa sets the stage Imagine Mmusi Maimane being a foreign affairs minister in a coalition government that has a foreign policy that is executed through loud diplomacy to unequivocally promote human rights and democracy, writes Mpumelelo Mkhabela. Read more Most read 'She was drenched in blood': Son testifies in trial of Cape Town woman accused of killing partner Tosca van Wyk dabbed her eyes at the sight of her son in the witness box as her trial for the murder of her partner in Table View continues. Read more Model prisoner: Inmate in altered prison uniform caught posting 'flamboyant' photos online The Department of Correctional Services has confiscated a cellphone from an inmate who has been posting 'flamboyant' pictures of himself online. Read more TAC slams Mbeki for repeating his 'HIV denialist' views, demands apology The Treatment Action Campaign has called on former president Thabo Mbeki to offer an apology to the public for the "dissident" views he expressed about HIV/Aids while delivering a speech at the University of South Africa last week Wednesday. Read more Reader's view You cannot give a technical/engineering problem to a politician to fix. Politicians have way too much to say in any case. We need people who DO not people who TALK! - News24 user @M55 commenting on last week's Friday Briefing, which examined the dire situation at Eskom DOWNLOAD THE NEWS24 APP CONNECT WITH US

Opt-out of this email • Manage Preferences • Update Profile • View PDF • Share • View Online This email was sent to newstrafik.LINK13@blogger.com on 30-09-2022 24.com is intended for opt-in communication only. If you feel this email is unsolicited, please report it to us