Zwelini Lawrence Mkhize (Zweli)

' They have been heartened that Ramaphosa's rival former health minister Zweli Mkhize is facing his own corruption probe into a Covid communications contract with a company called Digital Vibes (AC Vol 63 No 20 Zuma humiliated on his home turf)...

In a surprise move the ANCYL favoured former health minister Zweli Mkhize for president and party Treasurer-General and acting Secretary-General Paul Mashatile for deputy president...

KZN put him forward as deputy president on the slate of Ramaphosa's main challenger former health minister Zweli Mkhize...

The decision by the African National Congress in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) South Africa's second biggest province and its largest reservoir of party members to choose former health minister Zweli Mkhize as its preferred candidate for party president has come as a shock to supporters of President Cyril Ramaphosa...

The topic of the day is who is best placed to challenge Cyril Ramaphosa for the leadership of the ANC – Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma or Zweli Mkhize...

The speech launched his campaign to be chosen to stand for the party leadership but there are doubts the former favourite can muster enough support (see Box The rise and stall of Zweli Mkhize)...

The rise and stall of Zweli Mkhize Former Health Minister Zweli Mkhize helped lead the country through the Covid crisis and many had believed he would take over from President Cyril Ramaphosa before he was forced to resign after a corruption scandal over a communications company hired by his department at the height of the pandemic (AC Vol 61 No 8 Heroes and villains in the pandemic)...

The party in the province has not yet indicated whether it will support Ramaphosa or former health minister Zweli Mkhize for president...

The new KZN ANC chair is Sboniso Duma a close ally of ex-President Zuma and the former Health Minister Zweli Mkhize...

An insider described Duma and other influential young leaders as ‘Senzo Mchunu and Zweli Mkhize's boys'...

If the rule is dropped RET faction favourites Magashule and the former health minister Zweli Mkhize will be reinstated and can resume their campaigns to be elected at the December ANC conference as the party's presidential candidate in 2024...

But an insider in the RET faction believes that the one person who could take on Ramaphosa in December is former Health Minister Zweli Mkhize who has been partially exonerated of graft by the parliamentary ethics committee and has received an apology for a procedural error by the police special investigating unit the Hawks...

Possible contenders from the pro-Zuma Radical Economic Transformation (RET) faction are Tourism Minister Lindiwe Sisulu and former Health Minister Zweli Mkhize...

With Kwazulu-Natal strongman Zweli Mkhize making a comeback – after being cleared by Parliament of benefiting personally from a government contract involving members of his family and close associates – it could be all change in the ANC's top six...