Team led by Mvoko lobbying other provinces
ANC in EC canvassing for its preferred list of leaders for the ruling party’s top six ahead of national conference
An ANC provincial lobby team led by deputy chair Mlungisi Mvoko is “working around the clock” trying to convince other provinces about its preferred list of leaders for the party’s top six to be elected at the national conference in Nasrec, Johannesburg.
The provincial executive committee has thrown its weight behind provincial chair Oscar Mabuyane as its preferred candidate for the deputy president position.
It is also backing Cyril Ramaphosa and Gwede Mantashe to retain their respective positions of president and national chair.
Discussions are set to unfold in the next few days as party officials in the province are set to criss-cross the country to find common ground with other provinces on their preferred candidates.
At the top of the agenda for the province are discussions with Mpumalanga, which also supports Ramaphosa’s re-election bid.
The Mpumalanga province supports Ronald Lamola for the position of deputy president.
The Eastern Cape is sending the second-biggest delegation (659) to the national conference, which starts on December 16, while Mpumalanga is sending 368, putting it in fifth position.
ANC provincial secretary Lulama Ngcukayitobi said it established a formal lobbying team led by Mvoko and was “working around the clock to ensure that the party gets better after the national conference”.
“The directive of the PEC is that we must consolidate the discussions with other provinces which have a unified thought around the national conference so that we do not, by any means, collapse the conference on the basis of differences about the names of leaders,” Ngcukayitobi said.
“Mpumalanga is part of the provinces that we have to meet.
“It is important to meet with Mpumalanga because the kind of nominations by that province are almost similar to the Eastern Cape nominations’ outcomes.
“We have got more similarities with Mpumalanga than other provinces, except for the position of deputy president and treasurer general.
“We will have to meet with Mpumalanga so that we can convince each other,” he said.
The positions of the secretary-general, deputy secretarygeneral and treasurer-general failed to garner a clear-cut majority in nominations in the Eastern Cape, Ngcukayitobi said.
“We agreed therefore that we must meet other provinces around the middle road to save the ANC. But of fundament importance, the principles that are guiding us in the Eastern Cape should be the path around the renewal of the ANC.
“We are doing these negotiations with other provinces with an open mind.
“At the centre of our discussions is to put the ANC in a better trajectory. The discussions may ultimately convince us that the person that may be in charge of the DSG [deputy secretary-general] office is comrade Febe Potgieter but we will depend on what branches from other provinces say.
“The other element is the necessity to infuse a younger generation for renewal of the organisation and the gender mix,” Ngcukayitobi said.
But the main aim of the conference, Ngcukayitobi said, should be about the discussions to lift people out of poverty.
“The important thing is to consolidate a leadership that will be capable of taking the ANC and the people of SA, and in particular the Eastern Cape, out of the crisis of unemployment and poverty,” he said.
Mpumalanga’s ANC secretary, Muzi Chirwa, said: “We are engaging with all the provinces and will engage delegates in the conference.”