How the ANC e
Dren Nupen of the Elexions Agency, which is running the ANC’S 2017 elective conference, stands near the stage, microphone in hand. Her hair is bundled in a loose, silvery knot on the top of her head.
She is wearing a white and blue Elexions Agency bib over her dress. “Quiet comrades, you need to hear these nominations,” she shouts into the microphone over the din in the dimly lit marquee, erected for the Mpumalanga ANC provincial general council in Nelspruit last week.
It was Nupen who stood on stage delivering the final results in a similar but much larger marquee in a muddy, wet Polokwane in 2007, announcing to the ANC and the world that Jacob Zuma was the new ANC president.
And here we are again.
She and her team will once again preside over the ANC’S election process.
An insider’s assessment is that the agency is effective and fair. But, says the ex-agency staffer who chose to remain anonymous, “systems are only as good as the people implementing them”.
The election process run by the agency is pretty straightforward. Manipulation can and often does come from the party itself.
The gruelling five-yearly marathon that has captured the attention of SA and the international community, comes down to one conclusion: it all hangs on the decision of individual voting delegates who will be responsible for electing the party’s future leaders. This is a process which not only has a bearing on the party but on the country, as the victors are likely to lead SA.
The voting process is intricate, as is the method of selecting the 5,240 members qualified to cast their votes. While provinces have consolidated branch nominations at general councils and pronounced on nominees to the conference, the voting is still left to eligible individuals.
Red flags have been raised about votebuying, which has come to characterise ANC elective processes. The most the leaders can do is warn against this practice as it delegitimises its autonomy and the supposed powers of the branches which are represented by those voters sent to the conference.