Western Cape ANC again postpones its elective conference

THE ANC in the Western Cape has again postponed its provincial conference, until after the national elective conference to be held in Nasrec, Gauteng, from December 16 to 20.

This emerged after the Interim Provincial Committee (IPC) held its meeting in Cape Town on Sunday.

In October, the IPC announced that the provincial conference would be held from November 30 until December 3, but on the eve of the conference, they announced the postponement.

They will, however, convene the regional conference of the Central Karoo region in Beaufort West on

December 2.

On Tuesday, provincial spokesperson Sifiso Mtsweni said the IPC received a report on the preparations for the 9th provincial conference.

“The IPC noted the progress that has been recorded thus far, (in relation to) when the roadmap towards the provincial conference was first adopted,” Mtsweni said.

When the roadmap to the conference was adopted last year, the ANC in the Western Cape had less than 20 branches in good standing. All the terms of office for regions had lapsed and the demarcation of wards ahead of the 2021 local government elections affected many of the party's branches.

Mtsweni said the IPC has been able to record substantial improvements to date with branches in good standing increased from 20 to 267.

Three regions – West Coast, Overberg and Boland – have successfully held their regional conferences and the Central Karoo was going into conference at the weekend.

The Dullar Omar and Southern Cape, which were dissolved a few months ago, still have to hold their conference. Mtweni said the two regions have made substantial progress in preparation for their conferences.

“The Southern Cape region has grown from eight to 48 branches with a membership over 100, 13 branches away from their 70% threshold of 61.

“Dullah Omar region has grown to 73 branches with membership over 100, eight branches away from the 70% threshold of 81 from absolutely nothing when the task teams took over a few months back,” he said.

Mtsweni also said the ANC in the Western Cape has 267 branches out of a 284 potential branches – 17 branches away from meeting the 70% threshold required to hold a provincial conference.

The province will be sending 263 branch delegates, an increase from 192 recorded in the 2017 conference.

“The province will hold a provincial delegates meeting to consolidate our policy positions as well as continue to engage in a unified provincial perspective on leadership,” he said.

Political analyst Professor Sipho Seepe said there was a sense that the ANC national leadership gave up on the Western Cape structure.

“There was a time the ANC ran almost the whole of the Western Cape and it lost to the DA.

“The DA has a stranglehold over the Western Cape and the ANC is not able to deal with it,” Seepe said.

He said there was a demoralised ANC in the province because it was not running anything.

“You don't have a national leadership interested in the Western Cape.

“A lot of energy is spent elsewhere and you don't have an environment that shows people in the Western Cape act in unity of purpose,” Seepe said.