ANC branches in KZN prepare for next month’s provincial elective conference

The ANC in KwaZulu-Natal says more than half of its branches have held successful meetings in the run-up to next month’s provincial elective conference. The party briefed the media on Tuesday, on its preparedness to meet next month in Durban.

ANC secretary in KwaZulu-Natal Mdumiseni Ntuli says the province’s leaders are dealing with any challenges that have arisen at branch level to ensure that the provincial elective conference runs smoothly.

“The conference will take place from the 15th to 17th of July next month. The PEC prides itself on successfully convening all eleven regional conferences which elected regional executive committees and at least for having built more than 800 branch executive committees which are today in good standing throughout the province.”

“We have noted that at least 50 percent of ANC branches have convened their branch general meetings to nominate delegates to the 9th provincial conference and also nominate the leadership of their choice,” adds Ntuli.

He says branches that have not fulfilled the requirements of the conference have until the end of June to hold branch general meetings (BGM).

“We have 831 branches that have qualified to attend the provincial conference, and for us to qualify we need a minimum of 631 successful branch general meetings. So, when we are now above 50 percent of the BGM that have taken place, I mean 50 percent of 831 and we are now close 500 of BGM that have taken place. With this weekend alone close to 200 branches convened their meetings and of course, we are waiting for the head office to give us a verification report that will confirm how many have convened their meetings. We are quite certain the ANC will meet the minimum threshold required for the provincial conference.”

Nthuli denies that there are divisions among ANC members. But he says there are concerns that must be addressed…

“About divisions and factions that influence or impact negatively on the party, all of you will know that there were many challenges and of course, this applies to all of us, but it has impacted on us differently because we use different methods as political parties. In the political organisations, there would be instances where the political leadership is booed and I don’t think that we can say because of that incident which happened in the church service in Nkandla, therefore, is a signal that the ANC is caught up in massive divisions, I don’t think so.”

He says, “It’s obvious that there were people who attended the church who had certain views about the chairperson of the ANC and decided to express whatever grievances or concerns they have about him through the booing that we saw in the media. But our views as the provincial leadership of the ANC is that these things do happen.”

Meanwhile, the party has vowed to win all wards with vacant posts in the upcoming by-elections in the Umdoni, Umvoti, Umfolozi and Umthonjaneni municipalities. It says it hopes this will strengthen its position in KwaZulu-Natal in preparation for the 2024 general elections.