ANC holds list meeting before manifesto launch

THE ANC’S bigwigs descended on Durban this weekend for the party’s national list conference which will determine who makes it on to the list of 200 candidates nominated to represent the party in the National Assembly after the general elections later this year.

The party held the conference in umhlanga, north of Durban, on Friday and wrapped it up yesterday before proceeding with an extended national executive committee (NEC) meeting.

To kick-start a week of ANC activities in Durban, the party will celebrate its 107th birthday on Tuesday at the Ohlange Institute in Inanda, which was founded by the ANC’S first president, John Langalibalele Dube.

This will be followed by its election manifesto launch at the Moses Mabhida Stadium on Saturday, where 140 000 people are expected at the stadium and its outer fields.

ANC deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte said that in compiling the list they were also looking for demographic representation and gender parity.

“We are also going to be making sure that the ANC’S national democratic revolutionary gains are represented in the people that are going to be on this list. A truly non-racial list will also have to be the outcome of the discussion,” Duarte said.

She said the list would comprise 200 names, adding that 800 had already been put forward.

“The people with the highest number of votes tallied across the country, which make up 25% of names, will remain untouched.

Below that, we begin to discuss what the needs of the ANC are in the various parliaments.

“We look at skills, experience, and we hope that we’ll be able to retain at least 50% to 60% of people with experience of having been in Parliament or legislatures before,” Duarte said.

She said all nominations started at branch level and there wasn’t a single name that had not started at the bottom of the party’s democratic processes.

Yesterday afternoon the ANC’S acting national spokesperson, Dakota Legoete, said the list was still undergoing a vetting process.

“The list will be released once it has been vetted by the NEC, but it will be out in due course,” said Legoete.