ANC Northern Cape told to postpone elective conference, or else
Disgruntled members want the elective conference to be postponed until flawed membership audit reports are corrected.
FILE PICTURE: African National Congress (ANC) supporters. Picture: Michel Bega
Four ANC members in the Northern Cape are demanding that the ANC provincial executive committee (PEC) postpone the party’s upcoming provincial conference or face being taken to court.
They demand that the elective conference should not happen because membership audit reports are flawed and must be corrected before the conference, which is scheduled for May 11-15.
However, the audit reports were signed by party secretary-general Gwede Mantashe after a verification process.
The four members, Richard Nxamashe, Eric Kgotseng, Andrew Samson and Nombulelo Modise, have instructed lawyers to demand that the PEC postpone the conference until all duplications or cloning of memberships is corrected.
Kgotseng told The Citizen that all four of them were concerned about ordinary ANC members exercising their democratic rights in the party.
“We believe that we are not taking the ANC to court, but we are challenging people who manipulate things in the run-up to the provincial conference,” Kgotseng said.
He accused ANC provincial secretary Zamani Saul of ignoring all PEC resolutions regarding how the flaws should be corrected.
In response, Saul on Tuesday said Kgotseng and his colleagues had no standing to force the PEC to postpone the conference.
They were not part of the PEC that took the decisions and did not belong to any leadership in the party.
“They are not members of the PEC, not even the branch executive committee or region executives.
“Kgotseng doesn’t have any standing to challenge us,” Saul said.
The conflict symbolised the bursting of the bubble in the ongoing infighting between two ANC factions in the province – one allegedly led by Saul and PEC member Deshi Ngxanga, called Zamdesh, and the other led by treasurer Sylvia Lucas and Alvin Botes, known as Silvin.
Both factions are fighting for power dominance in the province.
Kgotseng alleged that Saul, as secretary, did not take the decisions of the PEC seriously because even his PEC statements did not reflect the true state of affairs.
“He is not being honest about the situation,” Kgotseng said.
Saul meanwhile, confirmed that the PEC had received the lawyer’s letter but said they would go ahead with the conference as planned.
“All the matters raised in the letter were attended to by a task team of ANC deployees and we submitted a report to Luthuli House. We are forging ahead with the conference and if they file for a court interdict, we will oppose it,” Saul said.
He alleged that the four were being used as pawns to do what they do.
“They are not part of any leadership, but they are being used as pawns in this matter. we know they are pushing an agenda for someone,” Saul said.
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