The 2024 national and provincial elections prove to be a nightmare for the ANC in the Free State.
This is because most of the regions have no budget to do their campaigns due to financial constraints.
An insider in both Fezile Dabi and Thabo Mofutsanyane regions told The Star on Tuesday that both regions did not have funds to get election posters to put up around their respective areas.
He alleged that the Fezile Dabi regional chairperson Victoria De Beers and her entourage were organising fundraising for themselves to attend organisational rallies, but they were failing to organise fundraising for the region.
“The regional chairperson is failing to organise and mobilise funds for the region, but she instead is able to organise things for her cabal.
“Out of the membership we have in the region she only chooses to organise transport for the few people within her circle.
“She recently bought a R1.2 million vehicle, I mean she could have at least donated a few rand to the region to be able to do organisational work.
“This lady is honestly not a people’s person, even some of her own people were leaving her left, right and centre,” the insider said.
Another concern Regional Executive Committee (REC) member, Christopher Melato (not real name), said the provincial secretary Polediso Motsoeneng was aware of the challenges the region was facing but not acting on them.
“I don’t think the chairperson appreciate the challenges we are having in our region. This region is heavily divided and there’s no effort from the REC to try to unite it.
“An example, one of our wards from Mokwallo which overlaps to Parys in town, has lost about 50% of the membership and no one is showing signs of concerns. Some of us just wait and see,” added Melato.
He said these elections would probably be the most contested in the province. With “our former premier and long-time provincial chairperson Ace Magashule also contesting its going to be an uphill battle for us as an organisation”.
“The province is also broke, it doesn’t have funds, and on the other hand we are not getting a clear message on what we must do as regions.
“The last communication we received from the province was that regions needed to mobilise funds for themselves, as the province did not have enough funds.”
The party in the province and the region were first in the news when this publication reported how the province and the region failed to transport its members to its 112th anniversary celebrations held in Mbombela.
At the time, The Star reported that members in the regions were informed that they won’t be ferried to Mpumalanga, a statement that was confirmed by the regional acting secretary Isaac Ngozo.
At the time, Ngozo cited the reason for not ferrying members to the celebration as wanting to prioritise the upcoming election campaign.
“As things stand, the region has serious financial constraints that need strict and careful utilisation in order to have election machinery that runs smoothly without any disturbance.
“It is within this practical consideration that the Regional Working Committee (RWC) could not organise transportation for our branches who could have wanted to join thousands of other members celebrating this important event in the calendar of our liberation movement,” he said at the time.
Both ANC provincial spokesperson Jabu Mbalula and regional chairperson De Beers did not respond at the time of going to print.
The Star