The African National Congress (ANC) has officially given a go-ahead for all provinces to have their conferences, starting with Mpumalanga this coming weekend.
This was revealed during a media briefing in Johannesburg, following the National Executive Committee meeting at the weekend.
ANC treasurer-general Paul Mashatile says national officials will ensure that they attend three of the conferences in the build-up to the party’s 55th national elective conference in December.
“Mpumalanga will hold its provincial conference this coming weekend. The Eastern Cape from the 22nd to the 24th of April. The conferences of the Western Cape, North West and Gauteng are scheduled to take place in May and June of this year. The KwaZulu-Natal province will probably be early July,” explains Mashatile.
In the video below, the ANC is addressing the media:
Eastern Cape endorses Mabuyane
Meanwhile, the ANC Women’s League Provincial Task Team (PTT) in the Eastern Cape has endorsed Premier Oscar Lubabalo Mabuyane as the party’s Provincial Chairperson, Mlungisi Mvoko as his Deputy and Lulama Ngcukaitobi as the Provincial Secretary.
Mabuyane was the provincial chairperson before the disbandment of the provincial executive committee. He is currently the convenor of the Provincial Task Team.
The decision follows the outcomes of a PTT meeting held over the weekend in preparation for the Provincial Elective Conference later this year.
The PTT also resolved that the ANC in the Eastern Cape should elect at least two women from the province to form part of the ANC’s top brass.
ANC Women’s League PTT Convenor Bukiwe Fanta says the decision was taken unanimously. “The PTT that sat on Saturday was a fully-fledged PTT. It included all the regions that were part of its PTT members directly elected. Even our provincial secretary, we are in one voice in support of this outcome that we have resolved. We are fully behind comrade Mabuyane as a chairperson, comrade Ngcukaithobi as a secretary; comrade Mvoko as a deputy chairperson and comrade Helen as DSG.”
Tension in North West
In the North West, disagreements between the ANC Interim Provincial Committee (IPC) and the party’s Provincial List Committee (PLC) seem to be reaching boiling point.
The IPC says it has resolved to disband the PLC, and subsequently summoned its Chairperson and her Deputy to appear before a disciplinary committee. The IPC is accusing them of bringing the party into disrepute.
The PLC investigated disputes in a number of municipalities and identified 155 councillors who were on the list, but were never nominated by their respective communities. In its report, the committee found that some IPC members are implicated in the manipulation of the lists. The committee recommended that those, who were not chosen by their communities must resign.
The IPC’s coordinator, Hlomane Chauke explains, “The PLC of the North West, we know that they’ve gone rogue issuing out letters, do all of these things that are supposed to be done internally. There are ANC internal processes that we all know. The IPC has come to a conclusion that the structure must be disbanded, and comrade Lorna and comrade Joe Mboweni, we must charge for putting the party into disrepute. We have already sent them letters.”
ANC money troubles:
On Monday, ANC spokesperson Pule Mabe has described as “fake news” media reports that the party is in trouble with the taxman.
It’s reported that the ANC owes the South African Revenue Service (SARS) more than R100 million in taxes, dating back a number of years.
Mabe says as far as the party is concerned the claims are not correct.
He says they haven’t seen any letter of demand from SARS to pay the outstanding tax within seven days.
According to Mabe the way the media reports on the matter is worrying.
“This is big fake news doing rounds out there in the public. The ANC engages with SARS from time to time, as a tax collector and they’re having that kind of a relationship. So those that decide they’re going to speak on behalf of the ANC and SARS when they are neither of the institutions and the media, because these are now running around on social media, deciding to run with this as if it’s news, it’s quite worrying.”
Pule Mabe says there has been no communication from SARS regarding its tax affairs:
