African National Congress (ANC) alliance partners are cautioning the party to guard against the use of money to buy votes. This is as the ANC in the North West is preparing for a provincial elective conference, set to take place at the end of this month.
The conference has been postponed twice this year already, owing to delays in finalising the branch general meetings, which get to elect branch structures and nominate delegates to the provincial conference.
The ANC in the North West has for a long time been characterised by divisions. Since 2018, the ANC North West has never had a provincial structure. It has been led by the Interim Provincial Committee, which says, it is now ready to hold the provincial conference.
“Good news is that we are now over 100 branches that are in good standing. We are working very hard to launch other branches so that we can have a 70% readiness of the branches going because the constitution requires that we must be 70%, but 100% and over is good news,” says the convener of ANC deployees in North West Obed Bapela.
ANC alliance partners caution the party to guard against using money to buy votes:
The race is on for the position of the chairperson in the province:
As the ANC now prepares for a conference, its alliance partners are cautioning the governing party to watch out for buying of delegate votes.
“What kills the ANC is money and what kills Cosatu affiliates is money. What kills the communist party is money. So, one thing we must refuse and kick out of our organisation is money circulation. That’s what kills alliance organizations,” says SACP North West Secretary Madoda Sambatha.
The provincial secretary of SANCO Packet Seaketso shares the sentiment.
“The ANC must just sober up, support the IPC in the North West, give them the necessary tools to make sure that branches go to BBGMs (branch biennial general meetings), branches select their own preferred candidates without being influenced because as you look at things, money is the order of the day. People are just being voted into positions of responsibility because an individual does have money.”
The alliance also wants the party to expeditiously deal with the issue of councillors who obtained their positions unprocedurally, because they were not nominated at community meetings.
“Those who know went to the council but default, by paying certain money to an individual, they must know that they are going to be removed. They are going to be asked to resign or they will be removed. We support the ANC as Cosatu,” says Cosatu’s Deputy General Secretary Solly Phetoe .
Bapela says a task team has been appointed to investigate, the matter.
