Delayed elective conference has Cape members up in arms

The ANC in the Western Cape could face a rebellion from concerned members from the main Dullar Omar region who demand that the party’s interim provincial committee (IPC), must convene the long overdue elective provincial conference.

The members plan a protest outside the party’s provincial offices in Cape Town next week to voice their anger at the failure of the IPC to organise the conference to elect a new provincial executive committee (PEC). The conference was overdue for the last four years.

The IPC was led by Lerumo Kalako as convenor, Ronalda Mulango as coordinator and members such as Richard Dyantyi, Mvusi Mdala and Andile Lili.

The members said the IPC, as an interim structure, did not carry the mandate to deliver on the ANC’s promise of a better life for all. As the PEC elections were delayed for four years, it meant the ANC’s promise to the people had been deferred for so long.

They blamed the party’s poor leadership for the ANC’s deterioration in the Western Cape. The ANC had been the opposition since the Democratic Alliance wrested power from it once more in 2009.

Since then, instead of the ANC coming back, the DA had strengthened in the Western Cape with its power only threatened by the right-wing FF+ and newcomer parties.

A spokesperson for the members, Siyabonga Booysen said the IPC’s task was to implement renewal, rebuild the province and prepare the province for an elective provincial conference.

“This is their responsibility. All we want is for the IPC to deliver the conference. But we feel that there is no eagerness to deliver it,” Booysen said.

“So our position is that the IPC must stop dragging its feet.

Failure to do so will result in us escalating the matter to NEC [national executive committee],” he said.

The group said the ANC, as leader of society, had a responsibility to bring a better life for all, but the IPC as an appointed body and not an elected structure had no mandate from the branches.

“What mandate are they operating on for four years? We are not saying the IPC must disband. We say they must deliver the conference,” Booysen said.

Due to the non-existence of an elected structure, the Western Cape had adopted no policy positions towards the upcoming national policy conference this month and the national conference in December, he said.

“What position is the Western Cape ANC carrying to the national conference on current debates? At the moment the Western Cape is like headless chicken, there is no direction.”

The Western Cape needed 285 branches in good standing to go to conference but currently had only 151.

Booysen said there was opportunity for the remaining branches to convene and for a provincial conference to take place.

Political analyst Goodenough Mashego said, considering that the ANC ruled the Western Cape for only four years through floor-crossing, the party was never a mandated government in the province.

“In reality, the ANC has never ever won the Western Cape. It is the only province whose people have never given the ANC a mandate to govern,” he said.

Mashego attributed the ANC plight in the Western Cape to its “failure to manage the shifting sands presented by the racial make-up of the province”.

He said only former president Thabo Mbeki mastered the racial dynamics in the Western Cape, hence he chose Ibrahim Rasool over existing black leaders as ANC provincial chair.