Lower South Coast ANC banned from provincial congress
The decision is reportedly as a result of ongoing tensions, violence and political murders in the province.
The local ANC has been barred from taking part in the provincial conference due to ‘serious challenges’, said the party’s National Working Committee (NWC).
In a statement, the NWC said it had taken the decision to disqualify several regions in the province, including the Lower South Coast Region.
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LSC regional secretary, Mzwandile Mkhwanazi, confirmed that this region had been barred from holding a regional congress and thus from taking part in the provincial congress.
The decision is reportedly as a result of ongoing tensions, violence and political murders in the province.
This means local ANC members will have no say in who is elected in the re-run of the provincial congress, despite having convened branch general meetings recently, should the congress go ahead.
Although the NWC did not name all barred regions, it reports that four regions have been disqualified are true, then the provincial congress cannot go ahead as planned.
For a conference to sit, at least two-thirds of the province’s branches must be available to take part in the conference proceedings and the election of new leaders.
The NWC believes that the affected regions are currently faced with serious challenges, and that allowing them to hold their regional congresses and take part in the provincial congress could have serious implications.
Some branch members in the LSC region told the Herald that they were quite happy with the decision because this meant the party’s initiative to restore unity in the province would succeed.
“Right now we want a united ANC. Factions are destroying our party; it’s high time we accepted that the Zuma era had come to an end and we needed fresh new leaders,” said one branch member.
Mr Mkhwanazi said the region was happy with the decision because tensions were running high within the region.
“How can we hold congresses when people are still being killed?” he asked.
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