ANC in eThekwini to hold long-awaited elective conference in March

The ANC in eThekwini will finally hold its long awaited elective conference in the first week of March.

This was revealed by the party’s task team coordinator Simiso Mkhize, in an exclusive interview on Thursday morning. Mkhize said the party has already met the 70% threshold, which is required by the party’s constitution for any structure to qualify to go to an elective conference.

He stated that out of 111 branches, 92 have qualified in terms of the membership audit with the task now to hold branch meetings, elect new leadership and also nominate their choice of leaders they want to lead the region. Mkhize further stated that while nominating for the leadership contest, the branches will also elect their delegates to the conference.

“I can safely say that the eThekwini region is ready for a conference. Although we are busy with branch general meetings to elect new branch leadership, the mountainous task was to get through branch audits to ensure the organisation still exists in all 111 branches. We have set it for the first week of March which is in line with the provincial road map,” said Mkhize.

Explaining the challenges that he and his task team faced, Mkhize said they found that most senior leaders of branches had defected, mostly to Umkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP). He added that the dilemma was exacerbated by the MKP’s dual membership strategy which forced the party to create a new membership portal before embarking on a massive membership clean up campaign to guard against infiltration.

“When we took over, the damage was huge as 107 branches needed to be re-organised so we had to appoint branch task teams in all these branches," said Mkhize

While pre-occupied with reviving branches, Mkhize's other eye is on the municipality where he must conduct oversight to ensure that mayor Cyril Xaba is implementing the party's service delivery programmes.

Although little known by the public, Mkhize is not a newcomer in the Struggle and the ANC. Born and raised in KwaMashu, a traditional stronghold in the north of Durban, he grew up in the ranks of the movement having started his political activism in the youth structures. He rose to lead his branch for 15 years before he was elevated to lead the zone which incorporated a number of branches.

Because of its membership size, eThekwini’s readiness is expected to be used as a barometer to measure the province’s readiness - according to the road map the province will have to hold its elective conference by the end of March.

With the date having been set, the lobbying and horse-trading is said to have begun with eThekwini Municipality Speaker Thabani Nyawose and current municipality Executive Committee member Nkosenhle Madlala expected to contest for the chairman position. Mkhize is expected to face off with Musa Nciki for the secretary position. Party members have been cautioned by party Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula not to talk about their availability before the nomination process starts.

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