55th National Conference of the African National Congress

The theme of the conference was "Defend and advance the gains of freedom: unity through renewal".^[5] The conference venue, when it opened on 16 December, was exempted from the load-shedding affecting most residential areas of the country.^[6] The request for Nasrec to be excluded from load-shedding was made by SAPS' National Joint Operational and Intelligence Structure in order to assist security operations in the area during the conference.^[7] Early proceedings of the conference were nonetheless significantly delayed and outgoing ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa did not begin delivering his political report to the conference until late afternoon, seven hours after initially scheduled.^[8] His speech was then disrupted by the late entrance of former ANC president Jacob Zuma and by a small group of hecklers, primarily from the party's KwaZulu-Natal branches, who sang and jeered loudly until an intervention by KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Chairperson Siboniso Duma.^[8][9]

Outgoing ANC deputy president David Mabuza delivered the party's organisational report, traditionally delivered by the secretary-general, because the incumbent secretary-general, Ace Magashule, was suspended from the party.^[10] Mabuza reported that the ANC's membership had dropped significantly since the last party conference, from 989,736 members in good standing in December 2017 to 661,489 at the time of his report.^[11]

Ahead of the conference, rules for the election of the National Executive Committee (NEC) and Top Six were devised by a committee chaired by Kgalema Motlanthe, a former President of South Africa and a former deputy president of the ANC. The rules, published in August 2022, effected several significant changes to the ANC's internal election procedures, First, they disqualified from top leadership positions any ANC members who had been charged with or found guilty of "unethical or immoral conduct, or any serious crime, or corruption".^[1] For example, on these grounds ANC Women's League leader Bathabile Dlamini was disqualified from standing for re-election to the NEC.^[12] The new rules also prohibited NEC candidates from campaigning as an organised slate and required all campaigns to submit full financial records for inspection by the party's internal Electoral Committee.^[1][13]

The Electoral Committee also announced that the election of the Top Six officials – which previously occurred in a single poll, with one ballot paper – would proceed in two stages in 2022: the president, secretary-general, national chairperson, and treasurer-general would be elected in the first ballot; and the deputy president and deputy secretary-general would be elected in the second, after the results of the first ballot have been announced.^[1][14] The revised procedure was expected to complicate the system of slate campaigning that prevailed in internal ANC elections, since unsuccessful candidates in the first ballot would be able to stand in the second ballot; however, most centrally, the committee framed the procedure as a means of allowing voters to balance the Top Six for representativity (in terms of age and ethnic or regional blocs) and gender parity.^[1][13] Once the conference began, however, this proposal was abandoned in favour of the traditional single ballot. Delegates at the conference also amended the party constitution to change the composition of the Top Six: a second deputy secretary-general position was created, resulting in a new "Top Seven".^[15]

As before, the NEC elections were subject to a gender quota – requiring 40 of its 80 members to be women.^[1][16]

Ramaphosa's bid for re-election as ANC president was labelled the CR22 campaign and involved a "formidable" social media campaign under the banner of #Renewal22.^[17] The campaign identified its four priorities as social and economic transformation; "clean, accountable and effective" leadership; public safety; and the completion of Ramaphosa's project of "renewing" the ANC internally.^[18] By the beginning of November 2022, Ramaphosa's bid for re-election was endorsed by the provincial leadership of the ANC in six of nine provinces: the Northern Cape, the Eastern Cape, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, North West, and Gauteng.^[19][20]

In October, a slate of Top Six candidates circulated, reportedly based on consultations between Ramaphosa's supporters in the incumbent NEC; for example, Derek Hanekom, who is closely involved in the CR22 campaign, endorsed the slate on Twitter.^[21][22] The slate proposed Ramaphosa as ANC president, Senzo Mchunu as his deputy, incumbent Gwede Mantashe as party chairperson, Fikile Mbalula as secretary-general, Febe Potgieter as deputy secretary-general, and Gwen Ramokgopa as treasurer-general.^[23][24]

Minister of Tourism Lindiwe Sisulu, former Minister of Health Zweli Mkhize, and Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma all sought to garner public support for their presidential bids,^[25][26] as did the incumbent ANC deputy president, national Deputy President David Mabuza.^[27][28] Mkhize and Dlamini-Zuma were viewed as contesting with each other for popularity in the province of KwaZulu-Natal,^[26] which was the ANC's largest province and would therefore send the largest number of voting delegates to the conference.^[29] Although Dlamini-Zuma's campaign was publicly endorsed by former President Jacob Zuma,^[30] the KwaZulu-Natal provincial leadership said in late September that it preferred Mkhize.^[31][32] Outgoing ANC treasurer-general Paul Mashatile was also identified as a possible candidate for the presidency,^[33] but, more prominently, was endorsed for the deputy presidency by the provincial leadership of the ANC's Limpopo,^[34] Gauteng,^[19] and KwaZulu-Natal^[31] caucuses.^[35]

Provinces also lobbied for their favoured candidates to move into Top Six positions, though not necessarily the presidency; those candidates included David Makhura (Gauteng),^[34] Stan Mathabatha (Limpopo) for chairperson,^[34] Ronald Lamola (Mpumalanga) for deputy president,^[27] and Oscar Mabuyane (Eastern Cape) for deputy president.^[22] Former President Zuma said publicly that he was willing to accept nominations for the chairmanship,^[30] and suspended secretary-general Ace Magashule said that he expected to make a comeback at the conference.^[36]

So-called branch nominations – nominations voted on by the ANC's local branches – opened on 7 September 2022;^[1][37] they were initially scheduled to end on 2 October, but the deadline was extended twice when many branches faced delays in holding meetings.^[38] Each branch was allowed to nominate one candidate for each of the Top Six positions (president, deputy president, chairperson, secretary general, deputy secretary general and treasurer), and the branch nominations were consolidated to develop a list of the three most popular nominees for each Top Six position, as well as the 200 most popular nominees for the NEC.^[29][37] This was a slight change from previous years, when branch nominations were first consolidated at the provincial level.^[2] The ANC's Electoral Committee, led by Kgalema Motlanthe, also screened and vetted all nominees.^[2][37]

On 22 November 2022, the Electoral Committee announced the consolidated nominations list for the Top Six positions. The branches' nominees were:^[39]

Further changes to the nominations list were made when the conference opened as four additional candidates – a historic number, according to the Business Day^[40] – were nominated from the floor of the plenary in the early hours of 18 December. The candidates for presidency, deputy presidency, national chairperson, and secretary general were confirmed as expected, though Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma declined a nomination for the presidency from the floor and incumbent David Mabuza declined a nomination for the deputy presidency from the floor.^[41]

Unexpectedly, however, the Electoral Committee announced that Febe Potgieter-Gqubule, the Ramaphosa-aligned candidate for deputy secretary general, had declined her nomination by email, apparently leaving Nomvula Mokonyane to assume the post without contest. Two other possible candidates, Ambassador Vuyiswa Tulelo and Gwen Ramokgopa, declined nominations from the floor.^[40] After some delay, the Northern Cape delegation nominated Tina Joemat-Pettersson, a Member of Parliament and former minister, to stand against Mokonyane; Joemat-Pettersson accepted.^[42]

The conference had also amended the party's constitution to introduce a second deputy secretary general position, and two candidates, Maropene Ramokgopa and Ronalda Nalumango, were nominated from the floor for that office.^[41] Ramokgopa was Ramaphosa's special advisor on international relations in the Presidency,^[43] while Nalumango was an ANC councillor in the Cape Winelands District Municipality^[44] and co-led the ANC's Western Cape branch as coordinator of its interim leadership corps.^[45]

Finally, all three initial treasurer-general candidates accepted their nominations, and they were joined by Gwen Ramokgopa, who was nominated from the floor. Andile Lungisa was nominated from the floor but immediately disqualified due to his suspension from the party, and Lindiwe Sisulu accepted a nomination from the floor but failed to meet the required threshold of support from delegates present.^[41] Although Mzwandile Masina accepted his nomination and was included on the ballot paper, he later announced – on the evening of 18 December – that he would withdraw from the race and endorse Pule Mabe for the position; he said that they both supported Zweli Mkhize's candidacy for the presidency and that since they were both from Gauteng province, they did not wish to stand against each other and risk splitting the province's vote.^[46]

After several delays,^[47] voting to elect the Top Seven officials began in the evening of Sunday 18 December and continued into the night.^[48][49] The results of the election, as announced on 19 December, were as follows (with winners in bold):^[50]

All of the winning candidates were aligned to Ramaphosa during the campaigning phase, except for Mokonyane and Mashatile.^[50][51]