RUSTENBURG – African National Congress (ANC) deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa and former African Union Commission chairperson and ex-wife of President Jacob Zuma, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, will address separate rallies in the North West this weekend.

Ramaphosa is set to speak at the National Union of Mineworkers Youth Structure (NUM-YS) rally at the Olympia Park Stadium in Rustenburg on Saturday. He is expected to deliver a public lecture on “The current struggles and the relevance of the alliance”.

Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma is expected to address the ANC Youth League’s (ANCYL) youth month rally in Klerksdorp on Saturday.

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Ramaphosa and Dlamini-Zuma are the frontrunners to take over the leadership of the ANC at the national elective conference in December.

Dlamini-Zuma is strongly supported by the ANC Women’s League and the ANCYL to take over the leadership baton from president Jacob Zuma.

The SA Communist Party (SACP) and Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) support Ramaphosa to be the next leader of the ANC, on the basis that it has been a tradition in the ANC that the deputy president become the president.

The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), an affiliate of Cosatu, two weeks ago said resources needed to be made available for the Ramaphosa presidential campaign bid to take off.

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In May, the SACP in North West invited Ramaphosa to deliver a public lecture in Rustenburg.

Meanwhile the ANC North West provincial policy conference also starts on Saturday, at the North West University campus in Mahikeng.

The conference aims to consolidate the North West’s position on various policy proposals that will be discussed at the ANC national policy conference scheduled from June 30 in Johannesburg.

African News Agency