Maape, Maloi vie for ANC North West top post

North West Premier Bushy Maape and former MP Nono Maloi are vying for the chairperson position at the African National Conference (ANC) 9th elective conference taking place in Rustenburg.

Nominations for the new top five leaders were concluded on Sunday morning. Voting will get underway later on Sunday.

Former chairperson Supra Mahumapelo, who was said to be making a comeback on an RET ticket, failed to make the cut during nominations. He then withdrew from the conference to launch legal action.

Paul Sebegwe was nominated for deputy chairperson along with Lazzie Mokgosi. Louis Deremelo and former ANC Youth League (ANCYL) national deputy chairperson Kenetswe Mosenogi, who was initially touted for the chairperson position, are vying for the secretary post

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ANC Women’s League (ANCWL) provincial chairperson and Mahumapelo’s ally, Bitsa Lenkopane was nominated for deputy secretary. She is up against Viola Motsumi and Motlalepule Rosho.

For treasurer, Lenah Mmiga will go up against Sello Lehare.

‘Court battles mount’

The conference was marred by delays and court applications lodged by disgruntled ANC members.

However, the sitting continued amidst legal battles.

Following the interdict filed against interim committee (IPC) members who have since been barred from voting, another party member, Mkhelele Nebe, has also filed papers in the North West High Court, seeking an interdict.

He is seeking relief on the basis of the legality of the conference.

Mahumapelo has also entered the legal fray and has written a letter of demand through attorneys to acting secretary-general Paul Mashatile. He also wants the conference halted.

In the letter, the former provincial leader disputes how the conference delegation was constituted, saying the IPC and at least four interim regional committees (IRC) were not supposed to be part of the proceedings.

He argued against the presence of the IPC, whose term he said officially ended in May 2020, and therefore “their existence and presence at the provincial conference is in violation of the same ANC constitution that the ANC NEC and its sub-structures have failed to uphold.”

The proceedings, said Mahumapelo, were marred with “illegality” and that any consequent outcomes emanating from the said conference would be “unlawful, invalid and inconsistent with the ANC constitution.”

“It is, therefore, our client’s instructions to demand from you as we hereby do and taking into consideration the aforestated irregularities, to call off the provincial conference and/or postpone it to a future date in order to allow the ANC to cure these fatally defective irregularities.

Should the conference proceed to nominate and elect leaders, Mahumapelo threatened to approach the court on an “extremely urgent basis” to seek an order declaring the conference outcomes null and void.

Meanwhile, the ANC NEC withdrew 32 more votes as a pre-emptive measure as court actions mount, bringing all withdrawn votes to 52, Newzroom Afrika reported.

The 32 are representatives from interim regional committees. The status of the interim committees has been the lead cause of court applications against the conference.

This was a move to safety by the NEC to prevent more litigation at the embattled conference.

There are at least 330 branches with 700 delegates at the conference.

In total, there are at least 1000 delegates at the Rustenburg Civic Center, who include non-voting persons, guests and representatives from the SA Communist Party (SACP), the Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the SA National Civic Organisation (Sanco).

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