Electricity & energy minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa is preparing to challenge for a top leadership slot in the ANC, according to people familiar with the matter. Ramokgopa, who also sits on the ANC’s national executive committee (NEC), is said to be exploring a joint bid for either party president or deputy president, potentially alongside National Assembly speaker Thoko Didiza. The move is timed ahead of the party’s 2027 elective conference when President Cyril Ramaphosa concludes his second term as head of the party.
Multiple sources confirmed to Business Day on the sidelines of the ANC’s national general council (NGC) that the pair has held a series of private discussions on the initiative, signalling early coalition-building. “These are exploratory talks,” an insider in Ramokgopa’s camp said. Their campaign would enter a competitive field, as provincial heavyweight and Eastern Cape Premier Oscar Mabuyane, allied with deputy president Paul Mashatile, is also preparing for a top post bid.
Mabuyane, however, played coy when quizzed on his presidential ambitions by Business Day’s sister publication, the Sunday Times. Ramokgopa brings to the table high-profile executive experience. He was appointed electricity & energy minister in July 2024, a post created to tackle the country’s protracted load-shedding crisis.
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He was serving as head of the presidency’s investment & infrastructure office and before that as mayor of Tshwane. In 2016, the ANC earmarked Didiza as its mayoral candidate for Tshwane, effectively positioning her to succeed Ramokgopa, who stepped down after serving as mayor from 2010 to 2016. Didiza’s mayoral bid, however, did not materialise after the ANC lost control of the city to the DA.
“As a female candidate, she will bring something new and fresh to the body politic,” a source familiar with the then Didiza camp said. Meanwhile, the NGC’s 1,800 delegates, who gathered from branches around the country, gave Ramaphosa rousing applause when he delivered his opening address on Monday. The NGC is a midterm review between national elective conferences.
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