By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The African National Congress (ANC) Western Cape provincial conference that was meant to take place this week has been postponed to next year.
The province has 267 branches – 17 branches short of the 70% threshold required to hold a provincial conference. It held its extended provincial working committee meeting in Cape Town on Sunday.
According to the ANC, the province has less than 20 branches in good standing, but all regions’ terms of office have lapsed, meaning no region is in good standing.
The membership system was compromised in most of the regions, and the demarcation of wards due to the 2021 local government elections affected many branches.
Spokesperson Sifiso Mtsweni said four of six regions had reached the 70% threshold, and three successful regional conferences had been held. The fourth regional conference, for the Central Karoo, will take place on Friday.
He said: Based on that, the IPC resolved that the provincial conference be held post the national conference in the first half of the coming year, after a thoroughgoing process of ensuring that all work that needs to be done in the regions gets completed and that no one is left behind.
The ANC said the IPC took steps a few months ago to dissolve the Dullah Omar and Southern Cape regions due to the slow pace of work, and it installed IPC-led task teams to strengthen the work of rebuilding the ANC in the two regions.
To date, the two regions have made substantial progress. The Southern Cape region has grown from eight to 48 branches with a membership of more than 100 – 13 branches away from reaching its 70% threshold.
“The IPC resolved that the work must intensify to ensure that both the Dullah Omar and Southern Cape hold their regional conferences before the provincial conference,” he said.