Chaotic ANC hobbling towards its elective congress

The ANC conference in December is at risk due to chaos in its structures as the nomination process kicked off last week.

The branch members are busy nominating leaders who will succeed the current crop under President Jacob Zuma.

Party secretary-general Gwede Mantashe has also released the number of delegates who will attend the elective conference, which stands at 4 723 members. Although a clear sign that preparations for the conference are well under way, a sizable number are unhappy and have turned to the courts or to party leadership.

ANC members in Free State have written to Mantashe, asking him to act against the provincial leadership under Ace Magashule because its mandate has expired.

The province was supposed to have held a provincial elective conference by August but kept on postponing it until it could not sit because now all provinces have to prepare for the national conference.

The angry members have threatened to turn to the courts if Mantashe does not intervene. Their complaint is legitimate.

Recently, the Eastern Cape ANC held a bloody conference that elected Oscar Mabuyane as chairman. Delegates beat each other and some were injured. The faction that lost at the conference has turned to the courts and others have approached Mantashe to intervene.

They believe they were cheated and that some like-minded comrades were not allowed to attend the conference. They want it nullified and to sit again.

A high court in KwaZulu-Natal recently nullified the conference that elected Sihle Zikalala and his executive to lead the province but his faction has gone against the ANC decision not to appeal.

Zikalala and company have the protection of President Jacob Zuma. The ANC decision not to appeal goes against their plan for the December conference. Already the province is divided on who should succeed Zuma but Zikalala and Zuma are behind Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.

The faction that won the court case and which is led by Senzo Mchunu supports DeputyPresident Cyril Ramaphosa, under whose slate Mchunu is being supported to take over from Mantashe.

Zikalala and his executive are appealing because they do not want the ANC leaders to form an interim structure. They want to hold onto power until after the December conference.

With all this unhappiness, the members can interdict the conference because the provincial leaders are not taking action. Members may cry foul if they are barred from the conference because of factional battles.

These ructions could prevent the conference from sitting and may even collapse it.