Branch mandate is key to organisational unity during elections

As the ANC in Limpopo prepares itself for provincial and regional elective conferences before the end of this year, residents of Limpopo must be concerned, especially about the kind of leadership that will emerge out of these processes.

We must be concerned because we are all aware of why the previous leadership under Cassel Mathale was disbanded and why the ruling party wants to elect new leadership in the province.

Central to these elective conferences is the calibre, capacity and mould of branch delegates who will be carrying variegated mandates from their respective branches to these conferences. Prior to these, branch delegates individually represent agreed leadership and policy positions with the understanding that all delegates also have an opportunity to lobby and influence each other purely because it’s a conference of branches and not that of money mandarins and their ilk.

Contrary to previous elective conferences, the nomination of delegates to these conferences has been largely characterised by democratic engagement and conducted in a peaceful environment with no fierce divisions and running battles. So far, branch disputes that followed have been largely unconvincing as reported. Given this situation, it is hoped that the quality of the end product in the form of delegates is less questionable and attached with reasonable integrity.

However, there has been a worrying trend which has opened the movement and its cadres to vulnerability of money dispensers and their hidden but obvious agendas. This is a trend which intensified during the reign of the “Limpopo Mafia” and we all know how it crippled the movement.

This is a trend that has reduced cadres into voting cattle as they only attend conferences to elect and usurp liquid money respectively. Sadly, the source of this mafia-like practice has its origins in state coffers, whose influence is reluctantly ruled out in the upcoming conferences.

Now that elective conferences are in our midst, we pin our hopes on all those who will be lobbying or contesting for political office to eschew and shun away from using capital accumulation and patronage dispensary in order to influence delegates. If there is any worst form of organisational abuse known, the buying votes should be the most unforgivable conduct in the movement which must be punished ruthlessly and decisively. Similarly, no degree of socio-economic backlog or background on the part of branch delegates justifies blind acceptance of conditional bribes and promises of opulent lifestyle.

Most worrying is that most of those vying for leadership positions are acutely aware of this destructive practice and nothing is done about it. It is therefore imperative to challenge those ignorant of this fact to declare and decline their election into leadership positions if it’s a result of electoral bribery and related misdemeanours. Some of the ramifications of people elected through these kinds of situations is that they tend to regard themselves as demigods and the prospects of the province will remain too ghastly to contemplate going forward.

That as it may, we urge all voting delegates to embrace revolutionary morality and defeat the love for money to occupy their minds as we elect new leadership in these conferences. In doing this, delegates will be making sure that there will be no basis to disband the incoming leadership as it happened previously.

If we love this organisation we will do everything in our power to expose and shame bribe peddlers whose only intention to destroy and annihilate this centenary old liberation movement.

Justice Kgoale