Credentials scrutinised at ANC leadership conference

...you can anticipate why people are taking their disputes to the courts

AHEAD of this weekend’s watershed ANC elective conference – where a new party leadership will be elected – including a successor to Jacob Zuma, one of the sticking points will be the adoption of credentials.

And the camps of ANC deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa and Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma are getting ready for a slugfest, as they seek to diminish the numerical strength of their opponents.

In several tweets yesterday, the ANC’s chief whip in Parliament, Jackson Mthembu, indicated that regional secretaries in provinces where Dlamini Zuma had won a majority of nominations, were trying to “allocate fraudulent delegates to branches that have failed to hold branch general meetings (BGMs)”.

In a subsequent tweet, Mthembu stated that attempts to “replace” Ramaphosa’s branch delegates where he had received nominations, “had been fought viciously by our branches”.

Following the branch nominations process, which culminated in the ANC’s provincial general councils, Ramaphosa is ahead.

But his 1 860 branch nominations are not indicative of delegates, with ANC branches that have more than 250 members being able to send up to two delegates to the elective conference.

Both Ramaphosa and Dlamini Zuma’s branch delegate count will only be known later this week when the haggling starts over the adoption of credentials.

Speaking to Cape Times, ANC Western Cape secretary Faiez Jacobs said credentials would be the key issue, stating that in terms of the party’s constitution, only branches which have held BGMs should be allowed to send delegates to the conference.

Jacobs and most of his provincial executive have been staunch supporters of Ramaphosa.

“We’re anticipating – because the stakes are so high and they’ve got a lot to lose – that people (our opponents) are not going to roll over and die…

“There’s going to be dirty tricks, we’re already anticipating dirty tricks, if people don’t see the numbers they will disrupt the conference,” said Jacobs.

He said all the rules must apply equally.

“We couldn’t get our whole delegation (announced in October) because we couldn’t get quorating BGMs in the Western Cape.

“We had a 189 branches and we only got about 145 branches to quorate, so that’s the tally of branches that we’re taking,” Jacobs pointed out.

He said other branches should not be able to take their whole delegations, if they cannot prove that they have a branch register with quorating meetings.

“We’re picking up a similar situation in KwaZulu-Natal, North West, Mpumalanga and Free State where there’s massive corruption…

“We need to ensure that everyone abides by the credentials. If not, you can anticipate why people are taking their disputes to the courts,” said Jacobs.