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ANC outlines reasons for disqualifying bigwigs from contesting top six positions

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The African National Congress (ANC) Electoral Committee has explained reasons for disqualifying several party bigwigs from contesting for the top six positions, saying they did not meet three main criteria to stand for the roles.

Former ANC Women’s League president, Bathabile Dlamini, and former party chief whip, Tony Yengeni, are not eligible to stand for National Executive Committee positions due to their respective criminal convictions.

Some members who did not meet the requirements for the nomination list have threatened legal action ahead of the party’s elective conference on Friday.

ANC Electoral Committee Secretary Livuwani Matsila says, “We have got rules that are used as criteria for qualifying or disqualifying members from standing. It has three sections. One – they are not allowed to stand for elections for the coming conference if you have been criminally charged or found guilty of a serious crime in a court of law. Two – If a member has been found guilty of contravening the ANC code of conduct or Constitution or has his or her membership suspended in the last ten years. Three – If a member of the ANC is awaiting the outcome of a DC process in the ANC or a court case is before a court, then they are not allowed to stand.”

Matsila elaborates in the video below: 

Sowing divisions 

Political analyst Ntsikelelo Breakfast says the disqualification of some members of the ANC from contesting for positions in the party’s top leadership structure is providing fertile ground for further divisions within the party.

Both Yengeni and Dlamini have been critical of President Cyril Ramaphosa with regard to the Phala Phala matter – calling for him to step aside and not contest a second term as the party’s leader.

Breakfast says that these developments do not augur well for the much-vaunted unity project within the ANC.

“Tony Yengeni and Bathabile Dlamini are told that they cannot stand in the upcoming conference of the ANC.  Does that fit into unity? Of course not, it goes against that. So there has been a tendency of purging certain people but on the other hand, being soft on other people that the President is aligned to. So it agitates some people to push back, so the conflicts that have broken out are still going to escalate themselves within the ANC,” says Breakfast.

-Additional reporting by Busi Chimombe

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