General views of the African National Congress (ANC) headquarters Luthuli House in Johannesburg, 9 December 2020. Picture: Michel Bega
The ANC Western Cape’s provincial conference is finally set for month-end and its attendance at the national conference next month confirmed, but its presence in Nasrec may have no impact.
As the ANC edges closer to its 55th national elective conference, it is still not known if the ANC Western Cape qualified or is ready.
But the party’s provincial spokesperson, Sifiso Mtsweni, said details relating to those issues would be announced soon.
Mtsweni said the working committee would submit a report to the interim provincial leadership meeting. “After that meeting, a briefing will outline all the issues including the preparations for the conference,” he said.
“Only after the meeting will we be able to brief in terms of how far we have come and if we met the threshold, but I can confirm the Western Cape will participate in the conference.”
It is understood the province will send 263 delegates to the national conference. While there was confusion around their attendance, independent political analyst Goodenough Mashego said the fact that they seemed to be an afterthought gave an idea of how insignificant their contribution was to the national debate on leadership.
“The reason why they are insignificant is because they are unable to elect leadership that can either wrestle the province away from the Democratic Alliance [DA] or even make some serious inroads into DA territory,” he said. “When you cannot run your own household, it becomes a bit tricky for you to have an opinion over how others should run theirs.”
Mashego said although they planned to attend the conference, they would not attend as a unified province.
“Unlike others, there is a prevailing slate which delegates go to conference to vote for a certain slate. The ANC Western Cape has over many years been unable to have unity,” he said.
“If you cannot have unity among yourselves, it is more difficult for you to go to conference. It is already difficult for them to reach a threshold. Going to conference without a unified slate is a problem. People from other regions need to know who they are going to vote for.”
Mtsweni said in terms of the province’s preferences, the election agency had collected all their files with votes and a report would be presented on who the province nominated and their top three.
Mashego said if there were problems with regions, it would be a loss because those were the people who would vote at conference. He noted there were different ways to move at conference.
He said it would either be by provinces or positions, but also by money. “Money characterises the way the ANC‘s slate functions. So people might vote for somebody else to spite someone else,” he said. “At the end of the day, the Western Cape will not get the desired result. It does not have a desired result as a province.”
Mashego added that knowing how divided the province was, President Cyril Ramaphosa might in the next couple of weeks go there to campaign.
The ANC Western Cape had a busy agenda this past weekend with treasurer-general Paul Mashatile and former president Jacob Zuma attending separate proceedings.
Zuma was there for an ANC Youth League event in Philippi on Saturday, while Mashatile attended the 33rd anniversary of the death of uMkhonto we Sizwe commander Anton Fransch from Bonteheuwel in the “Battle of Athlone”.
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– lungas@citizen.co.za