Cosatu

President Cyril Ramaphosa addresses the audience during the Cosatu central committee meeting

Not mincing words, Ramaphosa makes his plans for the presidency, and SA, clear

Cyril Ramaphosa has made it clear that he’s ready to lead.

Cosatu

President Cyril Ramaphosa addresses the audience during the Cosatu central committee meeting

Preliminary polls already place deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa ahead of his competition, president Zuma’s ex-wife Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma; and if Ramaphosa’s increasingly brazen advances on the presidency are any indication… the man’s ready for a fight.

Speaking to folks at the Gordon Institute of Business Science – a pretty heady bunch – on Tuesday, Ramaphosa said he’s ready to leave the co-pilot seat and step up as captain [of SA and the ANC].

Now, while some might see Ramaphosa’s confidence as misplaced, the deputy president enjoys increasing support from within and outside of the ANC. So far he’s received the official endorsements of the South African Communist Party and Congress of South African Trade Unions – two of the three Tripartite Alliance members and both very much able to cripple the ANC should they not get their way –, the ANC in the Eastern and Northern Cape as well as Gauteng.

Read: Cosatu brings president to heel, reiterates unwavering support for Ramaphosa

Add to that the support Ramaphosa enjoys from ordinary South Africans and it’s not hard to see why most folks are betting on him.

Zuma’s ex, on the other hand, has been endorsed by the president himself, the ANC Youth League, the ANC Women’s League and some of Zuma’s close allies… essentially, the most toxic elements within the ANC and society at large.

The only way her bid for the presidency could be hurt even further is if the Guptas themselves endorsed her.

That said, the self-proclaimed ‘kingmakers’ of the NAC, the KZN branch, seem to be leaning towards another Zuma presidency… at least they’re working on something, even if it isn’t running the province.

Anyway, when Ramaphosa officially kicked off his campaign for the presidency in Grahamstown not so long ago, he made a point of saying that ANC members must vote for a leader who would restore the ANC and work for the people of SA, not for themselves.

Watch: Mbete accidentally calls Cyril Ramaphosa the Hon. President, parliament erupts

On the subject of so-called radical economic transformation, the deputy — for now — president has been pretty clear. While Ramaphosa acknowledges the need to transform South Africa’s economy, he’s not painting it as some revolutionary new idea, but rather delivering on commitments the ruling party made decades ago.

“Radical economic transformation is therefore not a break with existing policy. It does not represent a new uncertain path.”