By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Two African National Congress (ANC) branches associated with former ANC secretary general, Ace Magashule, are reportedly preparing to interdict the party’s Free State provincial conference.
A source confirmed that a faction associated with Magashule was busy drafting papers to interdict the provincial conference.
The countless delays in the Free State’s inability to hold conference were also credited to clashes between branches that were still beholden to Magashule and branches pushing the renewal agenda.
ANC national executive committee (NEC) member David Mahlobo said the ANC had not received court papers with an intention to interdict the conference.
“I don’t know about any branch that has gone to court to interdict the conference. As things stand, I have not received any papers and our lawyers have not received any papers,” said Mahlobo.
The political report was delivered by IPC convenor, Mxolisi Dukwana on Saturday at the party’s 9th provincial conference held in Bloemfontein.
When we took over, almost all regional structures and branches were operating beyond their mandates as enshrined in the ANC constitution. The organisation was beset by divisions and factional arraignment which steadily squeezed the life out of the organisation…”
“Although these challenges were not unique to the Free State province, it is generally agreed that they were more pronounced here in our province,” said Dukwana.
Magashule who appeared in court earlier on Friday claimed that processes leading up to the conference had been rigged and that those associated with him were guaranteed to lose.
Dukwana dismissed the allegations. “I don’t know how you rig a conference. We are mindful of what has been said, especially the rigging. The former SG has been a chairperson in this province for quite some time and he has been having conferences, maybe he should have been asked to elaborate, maybe he knows one or two things about rigging.”
The conference experienced delays and interruptions due to disgruntled party members.
Outgoing interim provincial committee (IPC) convener Dukwana, is contesting the position of chairperson with premier Sisi Notmbela.
Dukwana was the only candidate to receive enough nominations from the 242 qualified branches to contest the position after receiving more than 20% of the nominations.
No candidates received sufficient nominations to contest the position of deputy chairperson. However, Toto Makume was nominated from the floor for the position. He accepted the nomination and met the threshold to contest for the position.
Makume will square up against Thabo Manyoni, the former mayor of the Mangaung metro.
Manyoni was widely expected to contest the position of provincial chairperson, but last-minute wheeling and dealing by various regions to unseat Dukwana seemingly resulted in an agreement that Ntombela stands a better chance to go head-to-head with the outgoing convenor.
For the position of provincial secretary, outgoing IPC coordinator Paseka Nompondo and Polediso Motsoeneng received enough branch nominations to avoid the need to be nominated from the floor, and would therefore go up against each other for the influential position.
Dibolelo Mahlatsi received enough nominations from branches and qualified to contest the position of deputy secretary, while Kenalemang Mohale was nominated from the floor for the same position.
The nomination process only took place in the early hours of Sunday morning.
With all credentials having being adopted the party have now elected its new top 5 structure including chairperson, secretary amongst other and results of the voting process should be announced on Sunday afternoon.