Johannesburg - The ANC has averted further threats to delay preparations for its national conference in December after it met its obligations to pay its employees their salaries this week.
The governing party was, however, forced to extend the deadline for branches across the country to hold their general meetings to next Monday, November 7. Last weekend, ANC staff notified their bosses that they would not be reporting for duty from Friday until Monday over fears that they would not be paid their salaries on Tuesday.
The employees told the Sunday Independent that their salaries were up to date including for October while the national executive committee (NEC) again recommitted itself to pursuing all avenues to address the ANC’s financial sustainability and employees’ rights.
ANC treasurer-general Paul Mashatile informed party structures that the impact of the industrial action by staff, load shedding and systems issues meant that several branches would not be able to hold their branch general meetings (BGMs) by the extended deadline of October 25.
This resulted in a further extension and the revising of the road map to the national conference.
Between November 7 and 24, the ANC plans to consolidate provincial nominations of its top six national officials and the additional 80 NEC members in each province. During this period, the party will also screen and vet, and collect acceptance forms and CVs from successfully nominated candidates, while the electoral committee chaired by former president Kgalema Motlanthe will entertain appeals and complaints about nominees meeting or not meeting the set criteria.
On November 24, the ANC expects to publish and send to branches the final successful nomination lists, which will include the top three nominees for each of the top six positions and the top 200 nominees for additional NEC positions. At its five-day national conference, scheduled to start on December 16, nominations with at least 25% support from the more than 4 500 delegates will be added.
At its special meeting last week the ANC NEC overturned the decision to condone branches’ non-compliance with the quorum requirement of 50% plus one as it contravenes the party’s constitution. Mashatile told party structures that this would not be allowed for the 55th national conference and that branches that received condonation on this basis should urgently schedule a rerun of their BGMs.
The NEC also urged the provincial and regional executive committee with its deployees to put in place programmes of mobilisation to ensure that branches can convene and reach quorum in line with the national conference guidelines.
Meanwhile, the ANC’s challenges ahead of the national conference are far from over as another of the two outstanding provincial conferences has been postponed again.
“The interim provincial committee (IPC) will be meeting on Monday, October 31, to review the timelines. Many branch conferences (BGMs) have not qualified after verification by head office and, as a result, will be rerun,” ANC Free State spokesperson Oupa Khoabane said.
Three disgruntled ANC members – Ditaba Mokhutle, Nozenza Cezula and Thabiso Seliane – have approached the Free State High Court to have the IPC and the Mangaung interim regional committee disbanded for failing in their duties in the process leading up to the regional, provincial and national conferences.
In its road map, the ANC in the Free State had planned to hold its provincial conference by the end of this month. The ANC in the Western Cape rescheduled its long-awaited provincial conference, which has been postponed several times, to between November 30 and December 3.
In the North West, another group of unhappy members want the high court to nullify the outcomes and decisions of the provincial conference held in August due to several irregularities. On Thursday, the North West High Court in Mahikeng postponed the matter to a date to be communicated by the registrar to the affected parties.