FREE STATE
In the Free State, a high court challenge looms following this week’s ruling that branches in four regions’ branch general meetings (BGMs) were unlawful. The court called for the BGMs to be rerun lawfully. The order came a day after a provincial general council (PGC) meeting, which is said to have been called with 24-hour notice, where some of the delegates from the illegitimate BGMs were present.
ANC members have vowed to head back to court this week to interdict a new proposed date for the provincial conference, saying that branches had not been given the seven-day notice to rerun their BGMs.
The provincial conference has now been set down for December 6-8. The provincial executive committee – whose mandate expired earlier this year – are insisting that the high court’s judgment does not affect the PGC and are hell-bent on going ahead with the provincial conference.
The long-standing chairperson and premier, Ace Magashule, is expected to be contested by his deputy Thabo Manyoni at the conference. Manyoni this week slammed the 24-hour notice PGC – which nominated Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma for the presidency and Magashule for the position of secretary-general – as a “sham”.
– S’THEMBILE CELE
GAUTENG
There were clear indications that Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa will emerge as the victor at the Gauteng provincial general council (PGC) on Friday night.
Despite delegates being given orders not to sing divisive songs about their preferred candidates, Ramaphosa supporters did not miss an opportunity to chant his election slogans.
Echoes of “Siyavuma” reverberated at the St George’s Hotel in Tshwane in a show of force to those whose mandate was to nominate competing presidential front-runner, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.
This was their retaliation while provincial deputy chairperson David Makhura pleaded with them not to sing divisive songs.
He eventually gave in with a surprise “nami ngiyavuma”, pointing to Ramaphosa as the man to lead a team “that will help us cross the river Jordan”. This was in full sight of another presidential contender, Zweli Mkhize, who appeared unsure how to react. He was deployed there at the last minute to give a keynote address where he slammed slates, saying “they have made us lose a lot of good comrades” and in a light moment, did not shy away from stating that he needs that support from the province too.
Ramaphosa made an almost clean sweep in Gauteng. A tally of numbers ahead of the PGC put Ramaphosa at 383 nominations, way ahead of Dlamini-Zuma’s 55.
Mashatile appears on the Ramaphosa list as a treasurer-general, but it’s understood that Mpumalanga Premier David Mabuza wants to work alongside him and Mkhize in what has been described as a “third way”.
But this has not won favour in Gauteng with regional leaders in the West Rand, Johannesburg and Tshwane telling Mashatile in one of the caucuses that talk of the third way was out of the question.
– HLENGIWE NHLABATHI
EASTERN CAPE
Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa has emerged as the firm favourite candidate to become ANC president at the next governing party’s December conference.
Out of a total of 527 branches in the Eastern Cape’s eight regions, 423 nominated Ramaphosa while only 61 nominated Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, who came in second place, followed by Dr Zweli Mkhize at third place with 38, for the position of party president.
Mkhize, who was present at the provincial general council to give a message from the national executive committee, got the most votes to become Ramaphosa’s deputy with 193 votes – a small margin ahead of David Mabuza, who garnered 190 votes for the same position.
Surprisingly, even in regions where Dlamini-Zuma was believed to be enjoying support, such as Joe Gqabi, Nelson Mandela Bay and Amathole, she did not do well while Ramaphosa snatched two of those regions.
But it was the OR Tambo region, the second-biggest region in the ANC after KwaZulu-Natal, that delivered the heaviest blow to Dlamini-Zuma, where not a single branch nominated her while Ramaphosa received the nod from 115 branches.
– LUBABALO NGCUKANA
MPUMALANGA
ANC presidential hopeful Mathews Phosa will go to court on Monday to apply for the dissolution of the Mpumalanga provincial executive committee (PEC) following the branch nomination results on Friday.
Most of the branches nominated unity above individual names for the top six positions when the ANC’s electoral commission announced results on Friday afternoon.
Unity has been championed by Premier David Mabuza.
For president, 223 branches nominated unity against 123 for Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and 117 for Cyril Ramaphosa. The same trend affected the rest of the top six positions.
Phosa’s Mpumalanga campaign co-ordinator, Ronnie Malomane, said the court application would seek nullification of the nomination process after branches that lodged disputes with both the PEC and the national executive committee did not get feedback.
“We want the nomination process to be rerun because 35 branches lodged disputes and there was no report-back,” Malomane said.
He also said that Mabuza and the PEC had misled branches into nominating unity. “The nomination guidelines are clear that a person with a name and surname must be nominated,” Malomane said.
He said that the ANC electoral commission had raised concern about branches that nominated unity. The commission had listed unity nominations as abstentions, but Mabuza and the delegates protested.
– SIZWE SAMA YENDE
NORTH WEST
The disruptions, booing, jeering and shouting matches during proceedings at the ANC North West general council on Friday demonstrated the reason why the courts have become a popular platform to sort out internal party disputes.
Or why the ANC-led alliance in the province has been described as “dysfunctional”, with the SACP and its Young Communist League youth wing calling for the ANC provincial chairperson and premier, Supra Mahumapelo, to step down.
Out of a possible 407 branches throughout the province, two out of 10 did not qualify for the ANC’s national conference starting on December 16, leaving only 352 as eligible.
A total of 119 disputes were recorded, but only 24 branches were ordered to rerun — and 16 were still outstanding at the time of the general council on Friday. Out of the 502 delegates that had been expected to attend, 36 were absent.
A section of delegates at the meeting booed and jeered when Mahumapelo’s name was mentioned.
“It is odd to see these squabbles because historically the Batswana are known to be a peaceful people,” remarked ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe, seated in the front row.
– SETUMO STONE
