Divisions within the Gqeberha-based political party in the Eastern Cape, the Northern Alliance (NA), continues to play out as the party holds its second elective conference in the City.
Party president, and current mayor of Nelson Mandela Bay, Gary van Niekerk, says the conference is organised by a parallel structure.
The conference was called by Bevan Brown, the suspended chairperson of the party. Brown says the meeting is legitimate and supported by the majority of the party’s branches.
“We have 1 300 signatures of our constituents to constitute this congress. It speaks through the Constitution. There is no way this event cannot happen today. We are expecting five delegates per branch. In total, 5 times 12, 11 quorate it, but there should be 13 branches here.”
Van Niekerk says the conference was illegitimate. He also issues a cease-and-desist letter to the conference organisers for organising the conference and distributing misleading information to party members.
Van Niekerk says the positions of the three NA councillors in the metro, including his as mayor, remain unaffected.
“The NA constitution makes provision for three ways a national conference can be held. By majority vote of the federal working committee, by a majority vote of the federal executive council, or by a petition of one thousand NA members in good standing. The FEC took a decision to host the conference later this year; therefore, the so-called conference that was held is illegal because it was not sanctioned by the legitimate executive. All actions taken by this so-called list of suspended or terminated members will not affect the NA in any way.”
New NA president
Japie Jansen was elected yesterday as the new president of the Northern Alliance. But the new office bearers say their election is above board, as 14 of the party’s 16 branches participated.
The new leadership says it will write a letter to the Electoral Commission (IEC) to declare vacancies of its three seats in the Nelson Mandela Bay council.
Jansen says they followed the party constitution and are confident of the legitimacy of the conference.
“We are not scared of any court, no court has the power to take the power away from the people and the people that voted us in, the branches that vote us in, no court has power to declare the constitution of the NA invalid unless we do things that are illegal or in contravention of the constitution.”
Northern Alliance’s Gary Van Niekerk elected as the new Nelson Mandela Bay Mayor
