ANC meetings deadline extended yet again

ANC branches not making a quorum and disruptions have been blamed for the failure to meet yesterday’s deadline to complete branch general meetings (BGMs) ahead of next month’s national conference.

The ruling party’s Free State spokesperson, Thabo Meeko, said the province, which is due to hold its provincial and Gariep regional conferences, had extended BGMs to Wednesday.

He said the meetings were disrupted due to differences in interpreting guidelines issued by ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe.

Meeko said by last Monday 76% of branches in the Free State had sat for BGMs.

The ANC Free State is expected to support presidential hopeful Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma.

Last week, Mantashe announced that the ANC national executive committee had extended the deadline for BGMs to this weekend.

Mantashe said by last Monday 70% of the branches nationally had completed their BGMs.

ANC KwaZulu-Natal provincial secretary, Super Zuma, was optimistic that the party would complete its BGMs by yesterday.

He said the meetings were sitting daily.

”We are hoping to have a full delegation at the conference,” Zuma said.

KwaZulu-Natal, the ANC’s largest province in terms of membership, is backing Dlamini Zuma to replace President Jacob Zuma.

ANC Mpumalanga spokesperson Sasekani Manzini said the party was confident that the province would complete its BGMs yesterday.

Mpumalanga is sending the second biggest delegation to the five-day national elective conference next month.

ANC spokesperson Zizi Kodwa said BGMs were sitting yesterday. He too was confident that all the outstanding meetings would be held.

Next month’s national conference is expected to have 5 240 voting delegates, 90% of whom will be elected at properly quorate BGMs.