Magashule influence, poor management behind Free State ANC’s failures to hold conference

The continuous delays in the Free State ANC’s provincial conference seem to have no apparent end, and some believe this may be the fault of those still loyal to suspended secretary-general Ace Magashule, who apparently still has a lot of influence in the province.

The provincial conference in question has had to be delayed several times in recent months and there are doubts about whether it will even happen at all.

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Free State and Western Cape conferences long overdue

With just under a month to go before the party’s national elective conference to be held in Nasrec, Johannesburg, there have been doubts on whether or not outstanding provincial conferences will be concluded in the Free State as well as in the Western Cape.

Speaking to The Citizen on Monday, political analyst Professor Andre Duvenhage said apart from Magashule’s influence in the Free State splitting the party in two, the other big problem faced by the province is that a huge number of branches are not in order.

“They (branches) did not follow proper elective processes, they are not well constituted and, in a way, this is an extreme example of mismanagement, and corruption and my take on it is that if they didn’t follow proper processes, they won’t be allowed to send delegates to the national conference.

“This may have an effect on the leadership in a number of ways and I’m thinking about the possibility that if the Free State is still Magashule-orientated, which is highly possible, then it may be to the advantage of the Cyril Ramaphosa group not to allow them to be part of the national elective conference,” said Duvenhage.

Regarding the Western Cape, Duvenhage described the ANC there as being very disorganised, stressing that one of the ANC’s National Executive Committee (NEC) members there, Tony Yengeni, remains an influential figure.

“I think there is also politics behind the scenes there to either allow or disallow them in the national elective conference, because it might have an impact on the outcome of the national elective conference.

ANC Free State a party at war with itself

The ANC in the Free State has been divided for some time.

Besides the split between the Magashule and Ramaphosa factions, there also seems to be a feud between Interim Provincial Committee (IPC) convener Mxolisi Dukwana and his comrade Thabo Manyoni, despite them both being staunch supporters of ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa.

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Monnapule Ntamo from the Mangaung regional structure says there is a group within the party, led by Dukwana, which wants the party to hold a regional conference before the provincial conference.

“We have been saying let’s skip the regional conference and move straight to the provincial conference because we have not met to discuss the regional conference. A lot of preparations have been taking place for the provincial conference with a date set already,” said Ntamo.

He denied that there are factions in the provincial ANC, and when asked if he was confident of a successful provincial elective conference with no further delays, Ntamo said its tricky to say as this will depend on the magnitude of queries which might be coming from different branches.

How much power does Magashule still yield?

Ntamo is of the opinion that Magashule’s influence cannot be ruled out at this stage, saying they do not have permanent enemies in the province.

“However, Magashule cannot remote control everyone in the Free State… There is no easy comeback for him but he still has strong relationships with several people in the province,” he explained.

Attempts to get hold of Dukwana drew a blank.

When approached for comment, ANC Interim Provincial Committee (IPC) spokesperson Oupa Khoabane said the working committee has recommended that the regional conference take place from this coming Friday until Sunday, and that the provincial conference be held in the first weekend of next month.

Spokesperson for the ANC in the Western Cape Sifiso Mtsweni said they were convening an IPC on Monday to receive all reports.

“We will advise once we have made that determination… it could be on Tuesday or on Wednesday,” said Mtsweni.

Just like the Free State, the Western Cape has also had delays in the holding its provincial conference.

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He said they will also announce their formal nomination processes for the national conference.

Lack of provincial conferences won’t affect delegates

Another political analyst, Professor Dirk Kotze, says it’s difficult to predict anything about the Free State, saying the absence of a provincial conference does not affect the delegates from the branches of the province.

“I don’t think it’s going to have an effect on the national elective conference because it refers effectively to the delegation coming from the provincial executive, and that normally is a small number compared to that of the branches.

“Provinces make up 10% of the total delegates while the 90% come from branches and so I think in that sense it is symbolically important that all the provinces did complete, and conduct and elected their provincial conferences and elected their new provincial executives, but from a point of view on whether the national conference will continue or not, I don’t see why this will have any effect,” Kotze added.