Limpopo ANC conference rocked by membership manipulation claims

Trouble is brewing in Limpopo ahead of this weekend’s crucial elective conference in the Peter Mokaba region of the ANC.

This involves claims of political patronage, intolerance and attempts to manipulate the party’s membership system.

The conference begins today and runs until Sunday.

Controversy clouds ANC Limpopo elective conference

Delegates will elect top five officials and additional members to run the region for the next three years.

The biggest contest will be between Polokwane municipality’s mayor John Mpe and Capricorn district municipality mayor Mamedupi Teffo.

Hundreds of people claiming to be ANC branch members marched to the party’s offices at Frans Mohlala and Polokwane municipality council chamber to express their anger about the alleged bad conduct of some members during branch general meetings (BGMs).

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Branch member Fistos Mothudi said the marchers came from all branches that had parallel BGMs and those who registered disputes with the Limpopo provincial dispute resolution committee and the national dispute resolution committee.

“We believe that our BGM packages were tampered with. This is so because we had our BGM on 1 April. We passed the audit and reached the 70% threshold,” he said.

“But when we went for preregistrstion this week, we found that our package had been tampered with and even the signature of the deployee on the package was forged.”

‘Rented drunkards’

Speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal, a senior politician at the Polokwane subregion alleged those who took part in the march were “rented drunkards collected from shebeen and taxi ranks”.

Spokesperson for the ANC regional task (RTT) team in the Peter Mokaba region, Adolf Rapetsoa, also slammed the marchers.

“The march to the ANC provincial office [Frans Mohlala House] and Polokwane council chamber was nothing but a cheap and desperate attempt to cause trouble for the region ahead of the elective conference,” said Rapetsoa.

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He said the mobilisation of non-ANC members for frivolous political aims was frowned upon by the RTT.

“The ANC will investigate this and those behind the march will face the full might of the organisation,” he said.

Earlier this week, ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula was accused of having a hidden hand in manipulating the party’s membership system to cook the regional and provincial outcomes to favour him or his faction.

Mbalula accused of manipulating party’s membership system

This is contained in an anonymous document circulating on social media and WhatsApp groups, apparently penned by a disgruntled ANC staff member.

But party headquarters Luthuli House said it had no knowledge of the document and declined to respond to it.

According to the anonymous document, Mbalula’s office allegedly manipulated the membership portal system in provinces with political divisions.

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