5 Provinces Back Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma For 2027 ANC Race — Ramaphosa Faces Direct Challenge

Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma walked into a Johannesburg hotel conference room on Tuesday and told a gathering of senior ANC provincial delegates what party insiders had long whispered behind closed doors — she intends to contest the ruling party’s 2027 national elective conference for the top position.

Five provinces have already pledged their backing to the veteran politician, sources with direct knowledge of internal mobilisation efforts confirmed this week. KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, the Eastern Cape, and the North West reportedly form the coalition rallying behind her campaign, with branch-level resolutions capturing momentum that rivals are scrambling to counter before formal nomination processes open.

ANC spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu-Mashigo told journalists on Wednesday that the organisation does not comment on individual candidacies ahead of the official elective process, adding that structures remain focused on delivering the party’s 2024 manifesto commitments rather than succession contests. SAPS investigators assigned to the party’s security detail at Tuesday’s gathering declined to disclose attendance figures.

Dlamini Zuma’s political trajectory adds weight to her latest push. She narrowly fell short against Cyril Ramaphosa at the 2017 Nasrec conference, losing by 179 votes in one of the most bruising internal contests the movement had witnessed in decades. Her subsequent appointment as Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, and later as a Cabinet heavyweight overseeing the controversial hard lockdown regulations, kept her profile prominent — though sharply contested among South Africans who remember those restrictions.

At a Soweto branch meeting held the morning after Tuesday’s announcement, chairperson Thandi Mkhize clutched a laminated photograph of Dlamini Zuma beside OR Tambo and told three dozen members that the party had arrived at a moment demanding “a mother, not a manager” — a phrase that spread across WhatsApp group chats within hours, reaching branches as far north as Polokwane before nightfall.

What no internal document yet resolves is whether Ramaphosa himself enters the contest for a renewed mandate, or whether a third contender emerges from within the party’s National Executive Committee to fracture the vote entirely. As delegates return home to draft resolutions, one question already divides families across township dinner tables: does Dlamini Zuma’s resilience represent renewal — or simply unfinished rivalry?

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