In-fighting stops ANCWL provincial conference
THE Limpopo ANC Women's League (ANCWL) conference was called off due to political in-fighting before it could even get started in Tzaneen last Monday.
TZANEEN – THE Limpopo ANC Women’s League (ANCWL) conference was called off due to political in-fighting before it could even get started in Tzaneen last Monday.
The conference would have included a highly contested election between agriculture MEC Joy Matshoge and ANCWL chairperson Maite Marutha.
According to a source who wished to remain anonymous, 19 allegedly bogus delegates arrived at the conference. The source said they attended at the request of one of the contenders and their votes would have swung the election to this contender’s advantage.
When this was discovered by the conference auditors, the 19 delegates in question refused to leave the conference.
The source further said the names of some of the bona fide delegates were intentionally removed from the list and, as a result, they were refused entry to the conference.
ANCWL provincial secretary, Joyce Maluleke, said it was too soon to comment on the matter, as their report had to be finalised and submitted to the ANCWL provincial executive committee.
“It is true that we had challenges with credentials, but it is too soon to talk about them,” she said.
The halting of the conference dismayed ANC provincial chairperson, Stanley Mathabatha, who had already officially opened the conference. He said he was shocked at what had happened.
During his opening prior to the conference being stopped, Mathabatha said the conference came at a crucial time in the life of the movement. He said this was a crossroads moment for the ANC and the mass democratic movement in general.
“The central business of this conference should be about renewing the organisational machinery of the ANCWL. This conference should be about confronting the question of triple oppression, manifesting itself through racial domination, class domination and gender inequality imposed on us by the system of apartheid. You address the plight of rural women, a majority of who still suffer under the yoke of cultural stereotypes,” he said.
“This conference must never degenerate into a wrestling arena for leadership contestation. Comrades must remember that there are many women who are not in this conference; some of them are not even members of the ANC, but they all await solid and progressive resolutions.
“It is a revolutionary duty to defend our elected leaders. We must do this because leadership is an expression of the collective will of the members of the ANC. Any attack on the leadership of the ANC is in actual fact an attack aimed at the ANC itself. Our enemies will be disappointed to learn that we have hosted a successful conference. They are waiting with great anticipation to hear that we are engaged in a titanic battle to tear each other apart, they want to hear that this conference has collapsed. This conference must be a platform to disappoint such forces who stand to benefit from our divisions.”
