Crunch time as PGC held in EL today

MORE than 600 Eastern Cape ANC branch delegates will converge on the East London City Hall today to attend the provincial general council (PGC).

This follows a national executive committee (NEC) decision to assign all provincial executive committees (PECs) to organise the meetings, which will nominate the province’s preferred ANC candidates next month.

Delegates will also discuss consolidating policy review positions for the national elective meeting, which will be held at Nasrec between December 16 and 20, when ANC president Jacob Zuma’s successor will be elected.

The province is mainly divided between supporters of Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and ANC deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa.

To a lesser extent, other branches in the province have also nominated party treasurer-general Zweli Mkhize, former treasurergeneral Mathews Phosa and NEC member Lindiwe Sisulu as their presidential hopefuls.

The latest indicator that the Eastern Cape will vote for Ramaphosa is the deputy president being invited to deliver the keynote address at a fundraising dinner the party is hosting at the East London International Convention Centre tomorrow night.

ANC provincial secretary Lulama Ngcukayitobi confirmed today’s PGC, saying it would serve “as a platform to help Eastern Cape delegates to firm up their policy positions and have a consolidated position on who the branches want to lead the ANC”.

The province has 568 branches in good standing, meaning it would field no less than 600 delegates to the conference – a delegation third in size to KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga.

Earlier this year, the ANC in the Eastern Cape wanted every member in good standing to be able to vote on the party’s top brass.

“This will be an opportune time for us to fine-tune policy proposals like these because we believe they would assist in dealing with gatekeeping and factionalism,” said party provincial chairman Oscar Mabuyane.

Ngcukayitobi said the party in the province remained committed to lobbying support for every branch member being able to vote at elective conferences on the party’s policy.

Meanwhile, the PEC was hard at work yesterday marketing the R50 000 per ten-seater table fundraising event.

“This will be a networking session and so the deputy president, as well as MECs, will be in attendance,” Ngcukayitobi said. —