‘Premier league’ moves to quash conference call

CALLS for an early ANC elective conference have revealed cracks in the party’s pro-Zuma lobby, with key groupings taking up opposite positions on the issue.

The ANC Youth League, long seen as the mouthpiece of ANC supporters of President Jacob Zuma, is demanding that the party’s elective conference — scheduled to take place in December next year — be brought forward.

But leaders of the “premier league” — who also stand behind the president — have come out against the call.

The premier league is said to be made up of ANC heavyweights in North West, Mpumalanga and the Free State.

An early conference is seen as hampering the individual ambitions of those provincial leaders, who hope to dictate a leadership slate to be anointed by Zuma.

The pro-Zuma grouping is said to be campaigning for AU Commission chairwoman Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma to take over from her ex-husband. Others, including the SACP, want Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa to ascend to the highest office.

An early conference would provide a platform for the two factions to fight it out — but the pro-Zuma faction is said to believe the stakes are too high.

Youth league secretarygeneral Njabulo Nzuza told the Sunday Times his organisation would not be “told what to say in dark corners” and was “genuinely interested in the future of the ANC”.

Tomorrow, the league’s top five leaders will meet with ANC leaders — without Zuma, who is in China for a G20 meeting — to formally make the case that an early conference would be in the best interests of the party.

But that is not all the youth league is after.

It also wants the “fat trimmed” from the ANC national executive committee, calling for it to be reduced from 80 to 60 members, and seeks the introduction of a second deputy secretarygeneral whose role would be monitoring and evaluation.

Nzuza said the leaders were ready to present a document that “soberly” calls for an early conference BRING IT FORWARD: The youth league’s Njabulo Nzuza without a contested election.

But while the youth league is firmly confident in its “2016 Programme of Action: How to regenerate the ANC” proposal, provincial ANC leaders are singing a different tune.

ANC leaders in North West, Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal and the Free State told the Sunday Times that the league should abandon its call.

North West ANC provincial secretary Dakota Legoete said an early conference was not necessary as next year’s conference was not far away.

“You can’t just have a conference.

“There must be a policy conference and there are no documents for branches to engage,” he said.

KwaZulu-Natal ANC chairman Sihle Zikalala said his province did not support calls for an uncontested early conference.

A spokesman for the ANC in the Free State, Thabo Meeko, said his province would convince the youth league to abandon the idea.

ANC Mpumalanga provincial secretary Mandla Ndlovu said the province would support an early conference only if it was in the interests of unity.

The only groups that came out in support of an early conference were the SACP and Cosatu.

Nzuza said the youth league’s call was the collective view of his organisation.

“The ANC Youth League . . . [has a] genuine concern to foster unity in the organisation,” he said.

“We are not saying we want to be leaders ourselves.”

He said that having two deputy secretaries-general would ensure that the party implemented its policies.

“The organisation needs to start acting and do away with fighting. It must be an uncontested conference to rid [the party] of lobby groups.”

The ANC needs to start acting and do away with fighting