N Cape ANC faces race against time

DISPUTES: SLOW PREPARATIONS FOR CONFERENCE

Resolution meetings being held in three regions in province.

Disputes, reruns of some branch general meetings and nomination verifications have affected the Northern Cape ANC’s preparations for the national elective conference.

The Cyril Ramaphosa-supporting province faces the mammoth task of resolving the disputes before the conference. The province held 147 branch general meetings from which 12 disputes were received. Provincial secretary Deshi Ngxanga said the disputes ranged from membership queries to alleged flouting of guidelines at branch general meetings.

The John Taolo Gaetsewe region had the highest number of complaints at seven, ZF Mgawu and Namakwa had the rest between them. There were no disputes from Frances Baard and Pixley Ka Seme regions.

“Each region has been allocated a team of provincial executive committee members to deal with disputes and these teams have been convening dispute resolution team meetings across the regions,” Ngxanga said.

Ramaphosa recently announced his preferred ANC top six leaders list. In a surprise move, he named Naledi Pandor as his deputy. Outgoing party secretary-general Gwede Mantashe was earmarked for the chairperson post with Senzo Mchunu to replace him as secretary-general. Paul Mashatile was named as treasurer-general.

The province’s regional conference roadmap has been delayed by the disputes and the nomination verification process at branch level.

As a result, all regional conferences, except for Namakwa, would be held from December 1-3. Namakwa would only do nominations for the December national conference.

“From 181 branches that qualified, 157 will go to regional conferences, the remaining are the 24 of Namakwa that will go to the national conference,” Ngxanga said.