North West ANC branches demand removal of Interim Provincial Committee members

Although some African National Congress (ANC) branches in the North West welcome the postponement of the party’s ninth provincial conference, they demand that some Interim Provincial Committee (IPC) members who serve on the provincial dispute resolution committee be removed.

They accuse them of bias. These are members that have already declared their intention of contesting for the provincial leadership positions.

The Interim Provincial Committee has resolved to postpone the elective conference, which was due to be held later this week.

The announcement for the postponement of the provincial conference was made during a media conference in Rustenburg.

A three-day conference was supposed to take place from Wednesday this week. However, the IPC leadership says, due to a high number of unresolved disputes, they had to delay the conference.

Co-ordinator for the ANC IPC, Hlomani Chauke says, “The total number of disputes lodged with the PDRC stands at 105, over 20 branches have been ordered to rerun their BBGMs. The IPC has resolved to postpone the provincial elective conference to allow for the dispute resolution process to run its course. The postponement will also pave the way for BBGMs, which have been ordered for the rerun process emanating from the PDRC.”

Postponement

Some branches in Matlosana sub-region in Klerksdorp have welcomed the decision to postpone the provincial conference.

Ward 7’s Lebogang Lobese says, “We welcome the postponement by the IPC of the provincial conference, but we are not happy about the comrades who continue to be the referee and player at the same time, who are serving in the provincial dispute resolution committee. There is no way in the world that those people will be neutral and take decisions against the branches that nominated them.”

Ward 5’s Johnny Ntiane says, “There are lots of members who were excluded from the processes that needed to unfold in our ward but I think it’s a good day for us to say things were never done good in the ANC especially in different wards in the sub-region of Matlosana.”

A political analyst, Professor Andre Duvenhage, believes the inability of the ANC to deal with its internal conflicts, resulting in the decision to postpone the conference.

Duvengahe says, “That’s an indication that the internal workings and the structures of the ANC in the North West are problematic. Now we know that that is also the case in South Africa at large with regards to the ANC. But very specifically to the North West, my understanding is that there are more than sixty conflicts that need to be resolved before the provincial conference can take place.”

Meanwhile, the provincial conference is now expected to take place in August, to allow for branch dispute appeals processes to be carried out.

VIDEO: ANC branches in the North West raise concerns about party’s disregard of their disputes: