On Monday, Cyril Ramaphosa, current South African president, was reappointed head of the ANC, Nelson Mandela's historic party, paving the way for him to a second term as head of state.
In Johannesburg, in a party congress, the president involved in a corruption scandal obtained 2,476 votes from party delegates, against 1,897 for his only competitor, his former Minister of Health, Zweli Mkhize, 66, also put involved last year in a corruption scandal.
If the ANC, increasingly contested against a backdrop of unemployment and the energy crisis, emerges victorious in the general elections of 2024, Cyril Ramaphosa should truly serve a second term.
The most gifted of his generation, according to Nelson Mandela
In the long hours leading up to the vote, which continued late into the night on Sunday, uncertainty reigned.
Zweli Mkhize threatened to hound the president who enjoyed a comfortable lead a few days earlier.
According to a source close to the former minister, agreements had been signed for a long time to rally votes in strategic provinces.
The tactic had been devised "long before the conference" and unveiled at the last minute "to thwart the culture of intimidation" within the party.
Cyril Ramaphosa left however favorite, largely in the lead during the designation of the candidates in the running last month and dubbed by the ANC which saved him from a dismissal procedure last week in Parliament.
The president himself has been embarrassed for months by a corruption-scented scandal: he is accused of having kept wads of dirty money in his home, preferring to cover up the affair when intruders stole this money during a burglary in 2020.
During his speech Friday evening at the opening of the party congress, Cyril Ramaphosa was loudly interrupted by dozens of delegates, singing and banging on the tables, miming a pinwheel with their hands to call for change.
His supporters oppose them with a raised index and middle finger, to demand a second term for the one Nelson Mandela had designated as the most gifted of his generation.
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