ANC registers all its candidates
THE ANC is now ready to battle it out with its rivals in the local government elections in November after concluding the registration of its candidates on time with the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) – after experiencing serious glitches last month.
Last month, the ANC failed to register candidates in at least 95 municipalities in the initial IEC registration deadline of August 23 – which would have given parties such as the EFF and DA an edge over it after both parties had registered candidates in all 257 municipalities in the first round.
However, a Constitutional Court ruling which rejected the IEC’S application to postpone the local government elections until February provided an indirect lifeline to the ANC and other parties that had failed to register all their candidates.
The lifeline to the ANC came as a result of the IEC’S decision on September 6 to reopen the nomination of candidates, a decision which irked the DA and EFF.
The IEC’S decision prompted the DA to lodge an application in the Concourt, arguing that the decision to reopen the nomination process was unconstitutional, unlawful and invalid, and called for it to be set aside.
The Concourt, however, ruled against the DA which gave more armoury to the ANC to consolidate its list before the September 21 deadline.
Yesterday, an elated ANC deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte said its registration of candidates was actually concluded on Monday this week.
Duarte said the ANC had registered all its councillors-elect to contest the elections in 257 local municipalities, including the metropolitan councils.
“The ANC will be represented in all wards across the country. ANC candidates, selected with the support of
communities, will contest in 4 468 out of 4 468 wards in 257 metros, local and district municipalities.”
She said that 46% of ANC ward and proportional representation (PR) candidates were women.
Duarte said the ANC was proud of the women who had gained the confidence of their communities to be selected as ward candidates.
“Nonetheless, a lot of work lies ahead of us for the spectre of patriarchy to be eradicated in our society. Our candidates also reflect the diversity of our communities, with representatives of people with disabilities, the LGBTQI community and community builders.
This is a practical demonstration of our firm commitment to a non-sexist society,” Duarte said.
“Our youngest candidates are 20 years old. When we look at the median age of our candidates, we find that 25% of our candidates are young people. This demonstrates our confidence in the future and the capacity of young people.
“Most of them are graduates who can breathe life into local government,” she said.
Duarte also said they were now receiving exception reports from the IEC regarding some of their candidates.
“We are going to discuss the
exception reports with their respective leaders before taking any decision to remove them from the list. If a decision to remove them is taken, we would then consider a candidate who obtained a second spot and register him or her,” she said.
Duarte, however, conceded that the ANC was still seized with disputes over the nomination of candidates in provinces such as the North West.
She confirmed reports that the ANC’S electoral committee head Kgalema Motlanthe tabled a report to the party’s national executive committee and complained about the conduct of the North West inter-provincial committee co-ordinator, Hlomane Chauke.
In the report, Duarte confirmed that Chauke was accused of interfering in the work of the North West provincial list committee, conduct described as unbecoming by Motlanthe.
The ANC also lashed out at some of their members who had intimidated mostly women and had prevented them from contesting as councillors.
Duarte singled out the killing of three women in Inanda in Kwazulu-natal and the intimidation of women in Winterveldt outside Pretoria.
According to Duarte, these violent attacks were lodged by people who wanted access to municipal resources for their own benefit.
“There are many lessons that we have drawn from this process. We remain painfully aware that, within our own ranks, there were a few people who were determined to subvert and undermine ANC rules and guidelines.
“The national executive committee and the electoral committee take a dim view of alleged attempts by some within our ranks to manipulate the process. In this regard, the ANC will implement the recommendations of the electoral committee to ensure that these UN-ANC tendencies do not recur,” Duarte said.
“We wish to assure our members that any deviation from the rules and guidelines which materially affected the nomination of some candidates will not be left unattended, even beyond November 1,” Duarte said.