ANC branch members may have a chance to elect national leadership

The ANC may in future have a direct election of its leaders by branch members in good standing instead of being represented by delegates at elective conferences.

NEC member Phoebe Potgieter-Gqubule said that the ANC was mulling the idea and party structures would be given a chance to deliberate and make resolutions on the matter.

This is part of democratising within the ANC and the renewal of the party. Potgieter-Gqubule presented the report of the ANC organisational renewal commission following a plenary session at the party’s national policy conference held at the Nasrec Expo Centre in Johannesburg on Tuesday.

In her response to a question by The Citizen about how that was implementable considering that branch members could not all attend a conference, Potgieter-Gqubule said technology would be used in the process.

She said in future in order to avoid one faction taking all positions at elections, each of the top six positions would be voted for separately to give a second chance to the losing candidate to stand in another position. This meant that if someone contested the position of president but was defeated he or she would still be able to run for deputy president or any other portfolio. Currently if one loses there is no second chance to compete in another post.

“We are trying to eliminate the question of slates. The problem of slates limits the base and scope to elect people in a fair manner,” she said.

This approach would not only apply in the election of the national executive committee (NEC) but also for provincial, regional and branch executive committees.

She said at all levels leaders would be elected by branch members in good standing and this was aimed at eliminating the electoral colleges of delegates.

“We will not make it easy for one faction to take all the top six positions,” Potgieter-Gqubule said.

It was also proposed that the party should have two deputy presidents and three deputy secretaries-general, each with a particular task embedded to the position.

There was also a proposal to reduce the NEC to 60 members instead of the current 80.

All these recommendations would be taken through a process of debate and resolutions at branch and other structures of the party first and be adopted or rejected at the national conference in December.