An ANC supporter holds a party flag. The race for prominent positions within the party is heating up with the national elective conference looming in December. Picture: Phill Magakoe
Nominations for the sought-after ANC top six positions are trickling in, with Western Cape branches seemingly split on who to support.
At least 10 branches in the province have convened their branch general meetings (BGMs), with more expected to meet next week.
Branches have until the middle of October to nominate their preferred candidates.
Provinces are also expected to announce who they will then support.
The BGMs to nominate the party's top six and the national executive committee (NEC) are set to continue simultaneously alongside BGMs to nominate the new ANC leadership in the Western Cape, communications head Sifiso Mtsweni revealed this week.
When the Western Cape conference will finally go ahead is still up in the air after the ANC NEC put all outstanding congresses in abeyance until the national conference in December. These include the Free State, Western Cape, ANC Women’s League and the ANC Youth League.
Sources have said branches have mostly thrown their weight behind President Cyril Ramaphosa for a second term.
Branches differ on the position of deputy president, as some have nominated treasurer-general Paul Mashatile, while others are calling for Human Settlements Minister Mmaloko Kubayi to take over. Meanwhile, KwaZulu-Natal’s Mdumiseni Ntuli has also been nominated for secretary-general.
One source said some branches in the Western Cape’s Overberg and Cape metro regions have, however, thrown their weight behind Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma for president.
“Comrades seem to be supporting NDZ for president. They are saying that because of her experience in the ANC and government, and also because she is a strong woman who has led even the African Union and she led excellently, they believe that she should be given this opportunity to lead, even if it is for one term, but she must be given the chance to lead.”
The source said Malusi Gigaba’s name has also been thrown in the mix for the position of secretary-general despite being implicated in state capture allegations as well as a disturbing explicit sex video doing the rounds on social media. Gigaba would be deputised by Nomvula Mokonyane.
Mtsweni said the Western Cape had hoped it would sway the national organising committee at a meeting this week for the conference to go ahead.
“We are sitting at 50 branches that have held their BGMs. There is progress. This week there are over 25 branches in Dullar Omar that have sat successfully already. That puts us close to the threshold in the Dullar Omar region. The Southern Cape is a bit lagging behind, and that’s because we had to dissolve that regional leadership and install an interim leadership because we understood there were issues around demarcation that we needed to attend to,” Mtsweni said.
He added that they were encouraged by the allocation of 248 delegates for the national conference, having sent 182 to the 2017 Nasrec conference.
Political analyst Professor Zweli Ndevu said the ANC in the Western Cape would not have any bargaining power in the negotiations for top six and NEC positions.
“The expectation is that the Western Cape will align itself with the Northern Cape and Eastern Cape. Whatever decision the province makes will not be an independent one because they are in a very weak position,“ Ndevu said, adding that the Western Cape must rather focus on electing a new leadership.