FS ANC refuses to jump the gun on leadership niminations

The Free State ANC, which has seen a remarkable growth in membership over the past few months, will send 324 delegates to the party’s national elective conference in Mangaung

The ANC in the Free State has made it clear that it will only announce its preferred top six candidates for the party’s national executive committee once all the branches in the province have deliberated on the matter and come to an agreement.

This position was adopted at the ANC Provincial Executive Committee (PEC) held in Parys earlier this week after the ruling party the nomination process two weeks ago.
The procedure is that branches must first decide on their preferred leadership before the province adopts a collective position.

“We believe that this has been decided from national level and the provinces must respect that. The provinces were informed to let the branches deal with this first and they will then follow. This is applicable nationally not in the Free State only.

“For those who have pronounced themselves before the branches, that’s their choice and we are not going to comment on that,” ANC Provincial Secretary, William Bulwane told The Weekly.

Though the Free State has not declared who they favour to lead the ANC in Mangaung, the province has always backed the current leadership of the ANC provinces led by President Jacob Zuma. The province will give Zuma an overwhelming endorsement despite feeble attempts by the Regime Change group to lobby for change of leadership in Mangaung.

With the Mangaung conference only two months away, Regime Change appears to have lost direction, purpose and even credibility, and has been operating in a rather desperately disorderly fashion, which sometimes borders on the illegal.

Apart from threatening to disrupt the conference, the clique recently made futile attempts to have the conference moved to an alternative venue, for what it called ‘security reasons which will see loss of lives.’

Unconfirmed reports have linked the cartel to notorious ‘Born to Kill’ gang, which has unleashed a wave of terror at Botshabelo; assaults of innocent citizens and rapes are among the gangs specialties.

The position of the Free State ANC leadership on the nomination process echoes that of the ANC secretary general, Gwede Mantashe. Mantashe emphasised last week that even though the nomination process has been officially opened, it was premature for provinces to pronounce themselves on nominees because branches were still considering their preferred leadership.

“In the past, PEC’s have made pronouncements but it was the branches that decided what ultimately happened. Anything that people pronounce on is bookmaking. Anybody who speaks out now is a bookmaker”, said Mantashe.

Despite this known procedure, some provinces have gone ahead to pronounce themselves on the nomination list. Limpopo and Gauteng favour Kgalema Motlanthe for president and Tokyo Sexwale for his deputy. Mpumalanga, Eastern Cape, North West, Kwazulu-Natal back Zuma, so does the Northern Cape.

A total of 3 687 branches will be represented at the December conference, which will be attended by about 4 500 delegates of the 1.2 million ANC members. The Free State has 121 074 members, and will be sending 324 delegates.

Meanwhile, the national ANCWL backs Jacob Zuma for second term as President. The leagues spokesperson, Troy Martens said there is a “consensus among seven of the nine provinces who support continuity within the organisation” to support Zuma for the position of president.

Kgalema Motlanthe is still favoured as the deputy and Gwede Mantashe Secretary General.

“Limpopo province differs in opinion as to who should be nominated in these positions and Gauteng has been busy preparing for their provincial conference and will contribute once that process has been finalised.” Martens said in a statement.

Martens said the ANCWL will hold regional general councils to discuss the nomination list and this is where they can add or remove names from the list. Before reporting back to the National Executive Committee (NEC), provinces will also hold their provincial general council to “further consolidate nominations”.