ANC North West elective conference to proceed on Saturday, to be opened by Mabuza

Deputy president of the African National Congress (ANC) David Mabuza is expected to officially open the party’s North West elective conference on Saturday morning.

There were doubts this week about whether the conference, which is expected to be hotly contested, would actually go ahead as planned this weekend, due to outstanding branch matters. These, however, appear to have been resolved.

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Speaking to The Citizen on Friday, spokesperson for the ANC’s Interim Provincial Committee (IPC) in the province, Mothusi Shupinyane, said the party leader Cyril Ramaphosa will close the conference on Sunday.

A media briefing was scheduled to take place at lunchtime on Friday but that had to be postponed.

“Reasons for the postponement is that the ANC’s steering committee is currently still dealing with administrative issues of the conference,” Shupinyane said.

Earlier this week, political analyst Prof. Andre Duvenhage said due to the ANC in the province not having its house in order, there is a belief that the conference is not going to deliver a result that will be acceptable in terms of process, procedure and protocol.

“I also think there is a real chance that the Radical Economic Transformation (RET) faction has a chance of losing out in this conference, hence they are destabilising the environment and I am not saying they (RET) are the only culprits in this but the environment remains unstable and unconducive for a free elective process, specifically within the ANC,” Duvenhage said.

The conference has had to be postponed four times due to various reasons, which included the pandemic as well as the failure to complete branch bi-annual general meetings. In the past, meetings were also marred by allegations of rigging, sabotage and factionalism.

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Current premier of North West, Bushy Maape, is among the candidates that will be vying for the ANC’s chairperson position.

The likelihood of former premier Supra Mahumapelo’s participation can also not be ruled out at this stage.

Another possible candidate is Nono Maloyi, who is still facing a culpabable homicide charge, which he has failed to have struck from the roll.

According to media reports, Maloyi allegedly crashed into another vehicle with two occupants in 2018, killing one. It is also alleged that Maloyi was travelling at an extremely high speed at the time.

As a result, the party’s ‘step aside’ rule could again dominate this weekend’s proceedings.

Carl Niehaus, a member of the RET group, also tweeted on Friday morning that as a result of the charge, Maloyi cannot stand for any elective position.

A victory for either Maloyi or Maape is seen by analysts as a victory for Ramaphosa ahead of the ANC’s national elective conference in December this year.