ANC deadline stretched again

THE tussle for President Jacob Zuma’s successor has forced the ANC to once again extend the deadline for the party’s branches to hold nomination meetings, this time until Saturday.

Last Sunday was the cut off date for branches to hold meetings, which was a grace period stretching from the initial deadline of last Wednesday.

It has emerged that the contest over who should succeed Zuma at the ANC’s national conference in December has led to the collapse of meetings and accusations of manipulation of processes.

Some branches that have not sat, have accused regional and provincial structures of frustrating the process by not showing up to meetings.

ANC national spokesperson Zizi Kodwa said the latest extension was aimed at ensuring that the national conference was attended by as many branches as possible.

“We do not want to use deadlines to exclude branches. Some of these branches qualify and have been audited and our wish is to ensure that 100% of them attend the conference.”

Kodwa said the extension was also informed by the outcomes of disputes under way, some of which have called for branch meetings to be reconvened.

KwaZulu Natal, North West and Eastern Cape have lagged behind the most in terms of successfully holding their branches.

The eThekwini region has been one of the party’s structures that have faced accusations of sabotaging branches in support of Ramaphosa.

This came as Dlamini Zuma raced ahead of Ramaphosa, with all 88 branch meetings successfully backing her.

In the North West the party’s nominations process has been rocked by disputes. While the Free State has proved successful in holding its nomination meetings, many of the outcomes have been disputed.

Gauteng regions, where Ramaphosa appeared to enjoy support, were successful in holding their meetings.