By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The African National Congress (ANC) in Gauteng has resolved to reconvene its provincial conference next month, in order to conclude deliberations on policy documents and finalise the election of additional provincial executive committee (PEC) members.
The newly elected ANC Gauteng provincial chairperson Panyaza Lesufi announced this on Tuesday, during a media briefing at Luthuli House in Johannesburg. He said the reconvened conference will take place from 9 to 10 July 2022.
Lesufi said the provincial conference at the weekend in Benoni, east of Johannesburg was unable to deal with a number of issues ahead of the mother body’s policy conference, also scheduled in July.
“The conference adopted a motion for our preparation for our national policy conference in July 2022 and the conference resolved to adjourn its work to reconvene in two weeks’ time to conclude the business of the provincial conference,” he said.
“When we say the conference needs to conclude all its business; it means going to commissions, receiving commission reports, finalising our policy position and also finalising the election of the PEC members.
The Gauteng ANC’s 14th provincial conference was marred by several delays over the adoption of credentials and a failed court bid over Ekhurhuleni quarantined votes.
The party’s national executive committee (NEC) held a special meeting where there was heated debate about what exactly should be done about the votes. The meeting, held on Thursday evening, went on until 4am as senior party officials mulled over the matter. They ultimately decided to allow the provincial executive committee (PEC) to deal with the matter. The provincial structure decided not to make a determination about the matter and instead allowed Ekurhuleni region members affected by the matter to vote and then to quarantine their votes at provincial level.
Lesufi, who’s also the MEC for education in the province, replaced Premier David Makhura as the ANC’s chairperson in Gauteng after serving as his deputy for five years. He was elected by 575 votes to 543 after he beat Gauteng Cogta MEC Lebogang Maile for the top job.
Other leaders elected at the conference included Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko, TK Nciza, Tasneem Motara, and Morakane Mosupye as deputy provincial chair, secretary, deputy secretary, and treasurer, respectively.
Lesufi said the conference was unable to deal with the outstanding issues because delegates were exhausted.
“When we were about to start with the election of PEC members and to receive reports on policy documents, it was quite clear that our delegates were fatigued and we needed to adjourn conference,” he said.
Lesufi denied suggestions that the conference was chaotic and apologised to delegates for the difficulties they had to face.
Party President Cyril Ramaphosa was supposed to deliver a closing speech surrounding the renewal of the party and the freedom charter but could not attend the conference as he is attending the G7 Leaders Summit in Germany. Acting general secretary Paul Mashatile was then tasked to fill in for Ramaphosa.