After the party adjourned its 55th National Conference on Tuesday allowing delegates to go rest after lengthy proceedings, the ANC has announced its additional 80 members elected to its National Executive Committee (NEC) at the Nasrec Expo Centre on Wednesday.
In the list of 80 newly-elected members of the party’s highest decision-making structure, 41 are women and the rest are men, making it 44 women in the NEC after three were elected to the ANC’s top seven positions on Monday.
According to the party’s electoral committee chairperson Kgalema Motlanthe, eligible delegates were 4 436 in total but only 4 019 cast their votes. 133 of the votes were spoilt, with only one abstention.
The top five delegates who made it after the president’s slate are former premier of KwaZulu-Natal Sihle Zikalala, former MP Mduduzi Manana, Minister of Justice Ronald Lamola, former KwaZulu-Natal provincial secretary Mdumiseni Ntuli and Police Minister Bheki Cele.
Former ANC women’s league president Bathabile Dlamini and former Nelson Mandela Bay Metro councillor Andile Lungisa have also made it to the ANC’s highest decision-making structure.
Dlamini was disqualified after she failed the vetting process after the electoral committee said at the time that members previously convicted of wrongdoing and sentenced for longer than six months cannot contest for leadership positions in the NEC, when the elective conference get underway.
Dlamini was found guilty and convicted of perjury after she lied under oath about her role in the 2018 South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) grant payment debacle, when she was minister of social development. She was fined R200 000 and given a two-year suspended sentence.
Dlamini appealed the electoral committee’s decision and, nevertheless, she still made it to the NEC.
Lungisa, who made it at number 11 on the list, was also suppressed by the vetting process. Lungisa, the treasurer-general hopeful, appealed to the electoral committee seeking interim relief after the Eastern Cape provincial executive committee (PEC) announced recently that his membership has been suspended until 6 September 2023.
He was charged with breaking the constitution of the ANC after he hit an opposition party member in the head with a glass jug during a heated council brawl.
According to newly elected secretary-general Fikile Mbalula, Dlamini was cleared by the previous NEC to stand, but a final decision on Lungisa will be made when the conference resumes on 5 January.
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s controversial right-hand man, Bejani Chauke, who failed to emerge as treasurer-general in the top seven, has also made it to the NEC, alongside Ramaphosa’s former spokesperson, Khusela Diko.
Nkozazana Dlamini-Zuma who was nominated to contest the top seven position on the floor on Sunday and declined, has now been elected to the NEC. ANC spokesperson Pule Mabe was also elected.
Meanwhile, former Minister of Health Dr Zweli Mkhize was also elected to the NEC with only 1 673 votes. Mkhize lost to President Cyril Ramaphosa, who has now been elected for second term. In the total number of votes cast, Ramaphosa received 2 476 votes while Mkhize scored 1897. KwaZulu-Natal suffered the heaviest defeat as none of their preferred candidates made it to the party’s top seven.
Despite the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal having pronounced that it would back Mkhize, delegates confirmed on Monday that they had voted for Ramaphosa instead.
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