As the clock ticks ever closer to the African National Congress’ (ANC) electoral Mangaung conference in December, some branches in Gauteng have expressed grave concern and made serious allegations of process manipulation, intimidation and in some instances even physical assault on fellow comrades. The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) has spoken to some of the party members on camera who believe that going public might spur on the ruling party to act decisively against ill-disciplined cadres.
The ANC has recently alluded to cases of ill-discipline and revealed the establishment of task teams to look into the matter. ANC branches are concluding their meetings but the process to elect delegates to Mangaung is far from smooth sailing.
Branch 114 in Zandspruit, north of Johannesburg, will be represented but some members claim that their branch meetings were fraudulently constituted. They claim some comrades pushed for an outcome favourable to their political wishes.
“We had about four meetings. People did not reach a quorum at the first and the second meeting. At the third meeting we managed to quorate, but not in a good way although they nominated a person to go to Mangaung,” says ANC branch member, Sabata Mokhethi.
“The person that was appointed is a branch executive committee member and her appointment was not carried out properly,” says ANC branch member, Thobile Dubazana.
The ANC says it has mechanisms in place to deal with all those challenges. “It was decided that three task teams be set up each looking at three provinces and attending to all the compliments that have been received with a view to verify whether such incidents did happen and to come up with recommendations,” says ANC Spokesperson, Keith Khoza.
The ANC will hold an unusual four-day National Executive Committee meeting from tomorrow, the last before the Mangaung conference. Among other things, the National Executive Committee (NEC) will evaluate the party’s state of readiness nominations-related challenges.
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