Cut in Eastern Cape ANC delegates resolved
A storm is brewing between the Eastern Cape ANC leadership and Luthuli House after acting national secretary general Paul Mashatile released the finalised audit of delegates allowed to participate in the ruling party’s December conference.
The Mail & Guardian has it on good authority that the Eastern Cape immediately sent correspondence to Luthuli House after Mashatile wrote to provincial secretaries informing them of the approved number of delegates.
Insiders say provincial chairperson Oscar Mabuyane, along with the province’s secretariat and organising committee, believe Mashatile has not been helpful in resolving the administrative issue that saw the removal of thousands of Eastern Cape members.
One insider, who declined to be named, said the province made it clear to the secretary general’s office that at least 60 branches had been left out in the finalised audit report,
equating to almost 20 000 ANC members from the province.
“The provincial leadership wants this matter dealt with so that the province can go ahead with its branch general meetings. In our calculations the province should have 791 delegates without even considering the 60 branches that are currently excluded,” the source said.
In the report Mashatile sent to provincial secretaries on Wednesday, the Eastern Cape has the second-biggest delegation, with 684 of its 117 949 members allowed to participate.
Another insider said the matter was resolved on Thursday after Mabuyane’s intervention. The Eastern Cape chair had previously called out Mashatile during a special meeting of the ANC’S national executive committee (NEC) to approve the final audit for provincial delegates to the national conference in December.
The provincial leader said — following the province and Mabuyane’s intervention — Mashatile wrote back to say the Eastern Cape was now approved for a larger delegation of 791 members. “They are so obsessed with Eastern Cape numbers, now it’s clear they have an agenda to trim Eastern Cape numbers for their selfish interests.”
The new number means the Eastern Cape will now have just 87 fewer delegates than Kwazulu-natal, which will vote in new national leaders for the ruling party in what is shaping up to be a hotly contested election in December.
Eastern Cape secretary Lulama Ngcukayitobi said that they identified 645 branches eligible to participate in the national conference processes because their membership was above 100. The NEC meeting presentation by national organising unit said the province had 575 branches above 100 members.
After meeting the national organising unit this week, the number increased to 634 branches eligible to hold branch general meetings.
Ngcukayitobi said it had identified 10 branches that the national organising unit found to be less than 100 members but the branch registers downloaded on the membership system indicated that the branches are above 100.
Mabuyane and Mashatile each have a stake in the brewing storm because both are vying to become the ANC’S deputy president.
Mashatile has received an endorsement from Limpopo, as well as Ekurhuleni, the biggest region in Gauteng. The acting secretary general — who is also the ANC’S treasury general — is said to also be favoured by the North West. Babalo Madikizela, a political rival of Mabuyane and a heavyweight in the Eastern Cape, is also supporting Mashatile.
Mabuyane is said to have petitioned some regions and leaders loyal to ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa in Kwazulu-natal to support his bid. Mabuyane, a close ally of Northern Cape chairperson Zamani Saul, is also likely to receive support from that province and the neighbouring Western Cape.
Meanwhile, Mpumalanga dropped to fifth place after the ANC’S provincial audits, losing its position as the second-biggest power player in the ruling party’s politics.
In a letter seen by the M&G, Mashatile said 3 942 ANC branches had more than 100 members and were therefore entitled to one delegate each.
Mashatile said the ruling party’s NEC had also decided that a branch would get one delegate for every additional 150 members, subject to the limitations of the national conference ceiling for attendance.
Kwazulu-natal received approval for 877 delegates. In June, the province recorded 177653 members but this decreased to 136267 after the membership renewal cycle.
The third-largest delegation will come from Limpopo, with 613 members participating. Limpopo had 128418 members in the final audit report. Gauteng will have the fourthbiggest delegation of 520 from its 85 574 members.
Mpumalanga has 390 delegates and 68 268 members. Under the ANC’S current deputy president, David Mabuza, it was the secondlargest province at the party’s last national conference in 2017.
North West will have 361 delegates, with Free State allowed to have 301 delegates. The Western Cape and Northern Cape will have the smallest delegations, numbering 283 and 239, respectively.