Durban - ANC members in KwaZulu-Natal will have a chance to express their position on the highly contested step-aside rule at the ruling party’s provincial elective conference.
However, only the national elective conference in December can effect changes to the controversial policy, which many party members are fiercely opposed to.
This is according to ANC provincial secretary Mdumiseni Ntuli.
Briefing the media yesterday, Ntuli conceded that many party members were opposed to the policy, whose application was seen to be selective.
He also dismissed suggestions that there were moves by either the party’s provincial leadership or the National Executive Committee to force eThekwini chairperson Zandile Gumede to resign from her position.
“I sit in the National Executive Committee and am not aware of any instruction directly or indirectly from the head office which is saying that Comrade Zandile must step down from her position as the chairperson of eThekwini Region. I am not aware of that, and she has never reported that to me,” Ntuli told the media.
While Sihle Zikalala and Nomusa Dube-Ncube are expected to go head-to-head for the position of provincial chairperson and had been nominated by some branches, Ntuli insisted that those nominated would only be named at the conference.
“What people are witnessing right now are expressions of preferences, we will hear from headquarters as to who has been nominated for which position,” he said.
With the month-end deadline looming for branches to hold their branch general meetings, there are concerns that the ruling party may see a large number of its branches failing to meet in time to make the cut, thereby affecting the legitimacy of the conference and those who emerge as leaders from it.
However, Ntuli said they were not panicking and believed that the minimum threshold would be met for the number of delegates to attend the elective conference.
“This past weekend more than 200 branches sat for their branch general meetings and we are certain that in the coming days there will be enough branches sitting to ensure that we meet the threshold,” Ntuli insisted.
The provincial secretary explained that branches, which need a minimum of 100 members, were expected to send two delegates to the conference. But for every additional 300 members a branch has, they will field an extra delegate.
However, he stressed that each branch would be limited to a maximum of six delegates.
The move by the provincial leadership is aimed at ensuring that large branches do not dictate the outcome of the conference, depriving smaller branches from making a contribution.
According to Ntuli, the Provincial Executive Committee agreed that the main content of the provincial conference would be the discussion documents released by the National Executive Committee in preparation for the National Policy Conference.
The documents are said to have been released more than three weeks ago, but had not been presented at branch general meetings out of a realisation that the main focus of members was the nomination of preferred candidates for leadership positions.
The provincial secretary said while there had been incidents of booing of leaders, including himself and Zikalala by party members at some gatherings, this was not a reflection of divisions in the ruling party.
He said the previous elective conference in 2018 had displayed the aftermath of the bruising encounter between those who supported Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma and Cyril Ramaphosa for president at Nasrec the previous year and this had led to divisions, which he said had now been ironed out.
The gathering to elect leaders for the province would see more than 500 people converging from July 15 to 17 at a venue that will be announced later this week.