South Africa’s ANC aims to announce new leader on Sunday

By Alexander Winning and Mfuneko Toyana JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) expects to announce Jacob Zuma’s successor as party leader on Sunday, a spokesman said, concluding a bruising leadership battle that threatens to tear it apart before a 2019 election. The race between Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa and Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, a former cabinet minister and ex-wife of President Zuma, the two frontrunners to replace Zuma, is too close to call. The stakes are high because the ANC’s electoral dominance means whoever wins the party’s top job is likely to become the next president of South Africa after the next national election.