EThekwini and Moses Mabhida ANC regional conferences set for April
eThekwini and Moses Mabhida, two of the ANC's biggest regions in KwaZulu-Natal, will hold their conferences in April.
Image: Matthews Baloyi
The ANC's elective conferences for the eThekwini and Moses Mabhida regions will now be held in the first week of April.
All 11 regions of the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal were initially scheduled to hold conferences by March 20, however, in a revised provincial roadmap the province has proposed to the national leadership to move the conferences of the two biggest regions to April.
Speaking about their readiness for the conference, Moses Mabhida (Pietermaritzburg) regional coordinator Zet Luzipo on Tuesday said his region’s conference date has been set for April 7, adding that by March 7 all the branches must have met and elected their new leadership.
“We are going to the conference in the first week of April and we are busy preparing our branches for that. Currently we have 66 branches that are ready to go to the branch general meetings and we are hoping all 92 will be ready by March 7 as directed by the road map,” said Luzipo.
He said for his region to reach the required 70% threshold, it would need 65 out of 92 branches to participate, adding that this is within reach.
According to a source that is involved in the organisation of the regional conferences, eThekwini, Mzala Nxumalo (Zululand) and Inkosi Bhambatha (Dundee and Greytown) will all hold their conferences in the first week of April. In an interview two weeks ago with eThekwini coordinator Simiso Mkhize, he had said his region was scheduled to go to a conference in the first week of March.
Mkhize had said the party had 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.
Explaining the challenges that he and his task team faced, Mkhize said they found that most senior leaders of branches had defected, mostly to the 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.
The ANC's provincial spokesperson Fanle Sibisi said they could not confirm the exact dates of the conference and will do so once all the branches had met.
Because of their membership size, eThekwini and Moses Mabhida's readiness is expected to be used as a barometer to measure the province’s readiness - according to the new road map the province will have to hold its elective conference towards the end of April.
It is unclear whether the national leadership will be happy with the province’s new road map, having already stated its unhappiness with the work of the provincial task team.
With the party's National Executive Committee meeting expected later this month, it remains to be seen whether the task team will continue or whether it will be reconfigured as had been announced by the party’s secretary-General, Fikile Mbalula.
In eThekwini, a contest for chairmanship is expected to take place between Municipality Speaker Thabani Nyawose and current municipality Executive Committee member Nkosenhle Madlala, while Mkhize is expected to face off with Musa Nciki for the secretary position.