52nd National Conference of the African National Congress

The 52nd National Conference of the African National Congress (ANC) was held in Polokwane, Limpopo from 16 December – 20 December 2007. It elected Jacob Zuma and supporters to the party's top leadership and National Executive Committee (NEC), representing a significant defeat for Thabo Mbeki, then the party's incumbent president and president of the country.

The conference was significant as a precursor to the general election of 2009, in which the newly elected leader of the ANC, the current majority party in the national parliament, became the next President of South Africa. (Thabo Mbeki resigned on 20 September 2008 and was replaced by Kgalema Motlanthe on 25 September 2008.) It was also the first leadership contest between two candidates at the national level since the 38th National Conference of the African National Congress in 1949, a watershed moment in the party's history when the moderate leadership was displaced by such figures as Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo and Walter Sisulu.

The buildup to the 52nd conference saw an unprecedented rivalry for the presidency of the ANC between Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma. Mbeki, required by the country's constitution to relinquish the country's presidency at the end of his second term in 2009, nonetheless chose to stand for a third term as party president, as the ANC has no limit on the number of terms as party president. Zuma, the party's deputy president, had been deputy president of the country until his dismissal by Mbeki in June 2005 following allegations of corruption. Zuma campaigned against Mbeki for the party's presidency in the run-up to the 2007 conference. From that position he would be in a very strong position to become the country's next president in 2009.

Most ANC leaders initially claimed that no campaigns were underway for the party presidency, and that the party was united. By the start of the conference, however, it was clear that the party was deeply divided into Mbeki and Zuma camps. Media interest in the campaign was high, and given the controversies around Zuma, there was initially talk of "compromise candidates", with the names of Tokyo Sexwale and Cyril Ramaphosa mentioned, but ultimately none was forthcoming.

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