Khalid Sayed ANC’s Western Cape’s spokesperson.
Cape Town - President Cyril Ramaphosa, campaigning in Cape Town at the weekend, said despite Khalid Sayed being widely favoured as the party’s premier candidate for the Western Cape, his name had been met with resistance from within the party.
These objections, Ramaphosa said, were the reason why the provincial flag-bearer had not been announced. In other provinces, the ANC usually only names premiers and mayoral candidates after elections.
This comes after the community of Rylands, Cape Town, cornered the president to make the announcement before the May 29 national and provincial elections.
In Rylands, many people insisted on Ramaphosa announcing the candidate with immediate effect to instil confidence in the voters of the province.
Ramaphosa said discussions on the naming of the Western Cape premier candidate were ongoing as the party’s secretary-general was still busy with a consultation process.
“Our normal practice as the ANC is never to declare a candidate premier anywhere in the entire republic for a whole host of reasons, political as well as organisational,” Ramaphosa said.
“When the president is elected at our national conference, he or she is automatically the candidate of the ANC to be president of the republic. Without any doubt or question, that has always been broadly accepted and decided as the position.”
Ramaphosa said as the party was gearing up for the 2024 general elections, they realised that they wanted to have a real push in the Western Cape and had a slightly different approach this time around in the Western Cape.
“Realising that we could have a chance to take this province back to the ANC, we felt that in order to boost our campaign in the Western Cape we should deviate from normal practice and nominate a premier candidate and announce it ahead of the election,” said Ramaphosa.
“We then engaged in a consultation process. The Provincial Executive Committee discussed the matter, and having done so, it also recommended a name. Soon after the name was recommended, the NWC approved the name.
“We had a flurry before the announcement was even made; we had a flurry of views objecting, and this, I am telling you, as the position ensued, we had a flurry of different views that came to the fore.”
Ramaphosa said party officials discussed this matter last Monday.
“The secretary-general had been in a very broad consultation with a number of those organisations, and I should say quite a number of premier organisations, really outstanding organisations, supported the view that had been put forward,” said Ramaphosa.
“We want to unite rather than divide. We want the various views that are articulated to be heard and processed. And so that when we take a final decision, proper consultation and proper discussions will have taken place. That is how we operate.
“Having discussed this matter with comrade Khalid, who had been nominated, we felt that we needed to close off the whole consultation process. The secretary-general has been busy himself, as he should be consulting and talking to a number of people, entities, and organisations that raise concerns.”
zolani.sinxo@inl.co.za
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