Mashatile to officiate KZN ANC conference

THE African National Congress (ANC) in KwaZulu-Natal says it is ready to host its much-anticipated provincial elective conference taking place at the Durban’s Olive Convention Centre from Friday, July 22 to Sunday, July 24.

The conference, which is to elect new provincial leadership, was initially planned to take place from July 15–17 but had to be postponed as some branches failed to meet the required threshold.

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Briefing the media in Durban on Thursday on the state of readiness, ANC’s provincial secretary, Mdumiseni Ntuli, said: “We are expecting this conference to be the biggest political school that has taken place in KwaZulu-Natal over the past four years.”

He said a total of about 1 617 voting delegates are expected to attend the party’s ninth conference.

“We are not expecting any major problems. We have conducted a pre-registration process in all our regions, and today, we are registering members of the provincial executive committee, non-voting delegates, as well as leagues and regional executive committee members. The report we received this morning indicates that at least 95% of our branch delegates have now registered,” he said.

He revealed that only three branches had taken their disputes to the National Dispute Resolution Committee. However, Ntuli mentioned that would not affect the composition of the conference.

Responding to the allegations of disputes in 11 regions, Ntuli said they are not aware of any challenges.

On whether ANC President, Cyril Ramaphosa, will deliver closing remarks on Sunday, Ntuli said the party’s head office will inform them, but the province has been told that the Acting Secretary-General, Paul Mashatile, will officially open the conference on Friday.

“There is no requirement in the ANC that says anyone, including the president, has to close the conference of the province; it is actually closed by the newly elected provincial chairperson, but it does not mean that if the president of the ANC becomes available that day, he cannot,” he said.

The contest for the position to lead the party in the province is between the incumbent chairperson, Premier Sihle Zikalala; Finance MEC, Nomusa Dube-Ncube; Community Safety MEC, Peggy Nkonyeni; KZN Legislature Chair of Chairs, Siboniso Duma; former KwaZulu-Natal Government Director-General, Nhlanhla Ngidi, and businessman, Sandile Zungu, who joined the race this week.