Ramaphosa in North West to try resolve ANC factional issues

President Cyril Ramaphosa is expected to speak about the troubles besetting the ANC at the party’s Ngaka Modiri Molema region in the North West when he will addresses branches and other structures on Saturday.

ANC councillor nominations

The party’s top brass comprising the top seven and the National Working Committee (NWC) descended on the North West this weekend to attempt to resolve some of the issues faced in the province. This as some members in North West are still unhappy about irregularities that happened during the nominations of councillors for the 2021 November local government elections.

Between 72 and 76 councillors were allegedly parachuted onto on the ANC lists when they were not nominated by communities. The communities found names of people they never nominated sneaked onto the lists just prior to the candidates lists being sent to  the Electoral Commission of South Africa before the polls.

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This has been a bone of contention which has caused problems in the North West ANC. Despite the ANC headquarters, Luthuli House, undertaking to correct the issue after the election, the problem was not attended to until the dissatisfied members threatened to boycott the ANC at the 2024 national election.

N12 faction

This has also caused divisions in the ANC which pitted party branches against the newly elected provincial executive committee (PEC), which is also known as N12 faction. The NWC will try to bring reconciliation among the groups to avoid going to next year’s election with unresolved issues.

Ramaphosa is also expected to address the disagreements between the branches and the N12 leadership, which had been accused of interfering with the running of municipalities. Branches in various regions complained about the PEC that removed mayors, speakers, municipal managers and putting their own people.

Five councillors were recently expelled by the PEC for refusing to accept an unqualified Speaker who also allegedly forged his tertiary qualification.

ANC members go to court

Several disgruntled ANC members are facing off with the party in court in a bid to declare last year’s provincial conference and the party’s elected (PEC) to be declared unlawful. The matter was lost in court this week but the five members lodged an appeal claiming the judge had erred in her ruling.

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They want all decisions taken at the conference to be declared unlawful, the PEC dissolved and a new interim provincial committee (IPC) appointed to prepare for another conference that will  elect a new PEC.

ANC provincial spokesperson Tumelo Maruping said the purpose of the visit was for the NWC to interact with branches, regions and the PEC.

Maruping said they could, however, not anticipate what these structures would raise.

“This is not meant for the councillors and court issues because the NWC is doing this in the whole country. If branches raise all those issues, they will be free to do so,” he said.

“They went to Limpopo, they went to KwaZulu-Natal, they were supposed to go to Gauteng this weekend but they decided to come here first. If branches raise all those issues, they will be free to do so.”