Factional battles to be key aspect of vital ANC summit

AS SCORES of ANC delegates from various branches across the Eastern Cape are expected to kick-off the party's elective conference today, one political analyst believes the gathering will not be about coming up with solutions, but about factional battles.

ANC Eastern Cape chairperson Oscar Mabuyane is set to seek a second term but standing in his way is senior party member Babalo Madikizela.

The conference is expected to get under way with registration at the East London ICC in the Eastern Cape from today.

The three-day event was expected to take place late last month but had to be postponed due to some “unresolved disputes”.

Political analyst Ralph Mathekga said: “The ANC lacks a sense of urgency.

“You look at some of the previous conferences that have taken place. It's never really about what the party ought to deal with.

“I ask myself are these conferences really about dealing with the problems that people are having on the ground or are they all about leadership contests?”

He said it was sad that the elective conference of the ANC was hardly at all about the party coming up with pragmatic solutions and putting heads together.

“It's about leadership contests. “It's just politics devoid of substance. “It's all a commotion that there will be a conference in the Eastern Cape this week.

“But the province remains one of the corrupt provinces.

“The conference is not about heads coming together to bring about a solution, it's about factional lines,” he said.

There was also some “confusion” on whether delegates who have current cases before the party's national disciplinary committee may be able to attend and participate in the conference, according to sources.

Leading to the conference, two of the party's key members, councillor Andile Andries and ANC branch secretary Lubabalo

Keso, were shot dead in Nelson Mandela Bay on Monday.

ANC provincial head of communications, Gift Ngqondi, said all was set for the three-day conference to go ahead.

“There will be a registration of delegates today till the evening.

“Then the conference will officially start at 9am tomorrow, 7th May, 2022,” he said.

The party also announced this week that ANC delegates who will be attending the conference should produce proof of vaccination or a negative Covid-19 test result at the venue.

However some ANC members have bemoaned that this was a “waste of time” and a ploy to “keep some delegates” from attending.

Senior Nelson Mandela Bay ANC leader, Andile Lungisa, expressed his unhappiness about the announcement.

“We are not under a state of disaster or under a state of emergency.

“No medical conditions will be paraded to careerists and charlatans.

“Covid-19 tests are just a waste of time,” he said.