South Africa's ANC party gathers to elect new leader

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Thousands of delegates from South Africa's governing ANC party have begun a conference that will choose a new leader at a pivotal moment in the country's post-apartheid history.

ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe on Saturday said some delegates had been disqualified from voting after multiple legal disputes raged in the courts for weeks before the meeting.

The ANC, which has been in power since 1994, will announce current president Jacob Zuma’s successor as party leader on Sunday, concluding a bruising leadership battle. Zuma’s term as head of state runs out in 2019.

Zuma's free fees announcement

A demonstrator holds a placard during student protests demanding free education at the Johannesburg's University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, October 10, 2016. /Reuters Photo

The president announced in a statement earlier on Saturday that the government will provide free higher education for what media reports said would be 90 percent of the country's students.

"Students categorized as poor and working class, under the new definition, will be funded and supported through government grants not loans," he said.

"In order to achieve its intended targets of access and success," Zuma said that "fully subsidized full cost of study" will include "tuition fee, prescribed study, material, meals, accommodation and/or transport."

Ramaphosa or Dlamini-Zuma?

The winner of the vote will be well placed to be the next president, but the ANC has lost much popularity since Nelson Mandela led it to power in the euphoric 1994 election that marked the end of white-minority rule.

Nkosazana Clarice Dlamini-Zuma, African Union Commission chairperson and former South African government minister /Reuters Photo‍

The race has been dominated by Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, 65, generally favored by financial markets, and Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, 68, a former cabinet minister and chairwoman of the African Union Commission.

South Africa’s rand firmed two percent after courts ruled senior officials in two provinces seen as supporting Dlamini-Zuma had been illegally elected and could not attend the conference.

Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa led the historic negotiations in the 1990s to end apartheid before launching a business career. /AFP Photo

Ramaphosa won a majority of the nominations to become leader of the party, but delegates at the Dec. 16-20 conference in Johannesburg are not bound to vote for the candidate their ANC branch nominated, meaning it is unclear if he will actually win.

In contrast, Dlamini-Zuma is seen as a fierce campaigner against racial inequality whose hostility to big business has rattled investors in South Africa.

“The outcome is difficult to predict. This creates considerable uncertainty that is reflected in significantly increased volatility for the rand,” Elisabeth Andreae, analyst at Commerzbank, said in a note.

11684km

Source(s): AFP ,Reuters