Cyril Ramaphosa, the newly elected leader of South Africa\u2019s ruling African National Congress, has a tenuous hold on power in the party after his allies fell short of securing outright control over its top leadership body.<\/p>\n
A lack of support from a clear majority of the 86 voting members of the ANC\u2019s National Executive Committee will limit his scope to drive policy changes and assert his authority over President Jacob Zuma, whose second term as the nation\u2019s leader ends in 2019.<\/p>\n
The NEC is the ANC\u2019s highest decision-making body in between its five-yearly national conferences.<\/p>\n
The faction led by the candidate he beat in the presidential race, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, probably has the loyalty of about 45 of the 86 NEC\u2019s voting members, said Xolani Dube, a political analyst at the Xubera Institute for Research and Development in the port city of Durban.<\/p>\n
\u201cCyril is a very compromised president,\u201d Dube said Thursday by phone. \u201cHe is not running the administration of the ANC. He has got a serious problem.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ramaphosa\u2019s Constraints<\/strong><\/p>\n The executive committee\u2019s composition will constrain the ability of Ramaphosa, the nation\u2019s deputy president, to focus the government\u2019s agenda on promoting economic growth, creating jobs and cracking down on corruption.<\/p>\n His victory over Dlamini-Zuma for the party presidency was by the smallest margin since the ANC came to power in 1994, and only two of the other top five officials elected with him are considered certain allies.<\/p>\n The rand weakened as much as 0.5 percent before trading little changed at 12.7161 per dollar by 4:50 p.m. in Johannesburg, bringing its gain for the past week to 6.2 percent.<\/p>\n Yet, Ramaphosa\u2019s ability to deal with Zuma and his allies shouldn\u2019t be underestimated, according to Robert Schrire, a political science professor at the University of Cape Town.<\/p>\n \u201cThe power of the ANC presidency, the bandwagon effect and individual calculations have all changed. And the scope of new deals is vast,\u201d he said. \u201cSo given that in large measure Jacob Zuma and Dlamini-Zuma are yesterday\u2019s figures, the paradigm has shifted as well.\u201d<\/p>\n Graft Fight<\/strong><\/p>\n In his first speech as ANC president in the early hours of Thursday, Ramaphosa pledged a crack down on graft, which has become increasingly rife during Zuma\u2019s almost nine-year administration.<\/p>\n \u201cCorruption has to come to a stop and it must happen with immediate effect,\u201d Ramaphosa said. \u201cWe must confront the reality that critical institutions of our state have been targeted by individuals and families.\u201d<\/p>\n The nation\u2019s graft ombudsman indicated that members of the Gupta family, who are friends with Zuma and are in business with his son, had been allowed to influence the awarding of cabinet posts and state contracts. Zuma and the Guptas deny wrongdoing.<\/p>\n Ramaphosa didn\u2019t directly link Zuma to wrongdoing in his speech, and instead thanked him for his service to the ANC.<\/p>\n \u2018Radical\u2019 Policies<\/strong><\/p>\n He reiterated the party\u2019s resolutions to implement \u201cradical\u201d economic policies to give the black majority a bigger stake in the economy and provide free tertiary education to some students. He affirmed the party\u2019s decision to seize land without compensation to speed up land reform, but said it would only be done in a responsible manner that didn\u2019t harm the economy, agricultural production or food security.<\/p>\n \u201cWe must ensure that we do not undermine the economy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Ramaphosa will need all his skills to negotiate the sometimes perilous eddies of ANC policies.<\/p>\n The lawyer, who co-founded the biggest mining workers union, led negotiations to end apartheid and became one of the richest black South Africans.<\/p>\n He also played an important role in the Northern Ireland peace process, carrying out secret inspections of Irish Republican Army arms dumps with former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari that helped to push negotiations forward.<\/p>\n Public Rebuke<\/strong><\/p>\n Among his backers elected to the NEC were former finance minister Pravin Gordhan, who\u2019s dismissal by Zuma in March drew a rare public rebuke from Ramaphosa and resulted in the nation losing its investment-grade status with two ratings companies for the first time in 17 years.<\/p>\n Dlamini-Zuma, the former wife of Zuma, also secured election to the committee, alongside Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba and former central bank Governor Tito Mboweni, who appeared on her faction\u2019s list.<\/p>\n \u201cHe will have to negotiate with some people from the camp that opposed him, but he has to do that in an authentic way,\u201d Ralph Mathekga, an independent political analyst based in Johannesburg, said of Ramaphosa. \u201cHe is a man between a very angry nation and a very frustrated political party. He can\u2019t abandon either.\u201d<\/p>\n
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