With the deadline for nomination for leaders to the ANC top structures looming tomorrow, it has emerged that there is growing unhappiness among some leaders of the party in the Eastern Cape that President Cyril Ramaphosa has failed to support a candidate from their province to be elected to the ruling party’s top six leadership.
Sunday World understands there is growing fear the Eastern Cape, the third largest province in terms of membership, could find itself not having a single leader in the party’s most powerful structure.
A member of the provincial executive committee in the province said there was a silent mobilisation against leaders from the Eastern Cape not to ascend to Luthuli House.
“Ramaphosa came to the Eastern Cape last Sunday to cement his own position and didn’t offer anything to the province for its support. It was clear that he has practically dumped the Eastern Cape when he went to his branch BGM and the branch nominated him for president, Paul Mashatile as his deputy and Mdumi- seni Ntuli for SG (secretary general).”
Last week, Sunday World reported that the so-called CR22 campaign had been thrown into disarray following the emergence of different lists of top six leaders. It also came to light that there was frustration that Ramaphosa did not want to get involved in endorsing his deputy and secretary general, the two crucial positions for him during his second term.
The Eastern Cape PEC member further added that there was a serious possibility that the top six of the party would be dominated by leaders from Limpopo.
“If you look at all the slates, Limpopo is over-represented but its comrades are not classified as such. For example you don’t hear anything about Ramaphosa being from Limpopo, same with Paul Mashatile, David Masondo and there’s Stan Mathabatha who is a strong contender. When it comes to Eastern Cape they want to confine [Gwede] Mantashe to the province when he is also based in Gauteng,” he said.
Mashatile hails from Gauteng and started his political activism in the township of Alexandra.
On Friday, ANC spokesperson Pule Mabe said over 70% of branch general meetings needed for the party to convene its national conference had sat and therefore the organisation was ready for the December gathering.
Next Saturday, the Elections Agency and provincial nomination coordinators will consolidate provincial nominations, to be followed by vetting and screening of those nominated on November 18. The top three nominations for each official position and the top 200 nominees for additional national executive committee members will be published on November 24.
This comes as the party’s electoral committee head, Kgalema Motlanthe, this week reminded ANC structures of the adopted rules requiring candidates contesting for NEC and top six positions to submit the names of their campaign managers and fundraisers, budget for campaign with expenditure items, sources of donations in funds and in kind, and a full statement of income and expenditure.
The deadline for the financial disclosures, an unprecedented move in the history of the ANC aimed at curbing the culture of vote buying, is Friday, the day the party will also hold its first physical NEC meeting.
A contact close to ANC deputy president hopeful Mmamoloko Kubayi said the financial disclosures would help those without money to maintain their support. “It will help tone down those with excessive money. There are delegates who agree with you in the run up to conference only to be bribed when we get there,” the source said.
Vuyo Mkhize, spokesperson for Zweli Mkhize’s presidential campaign, said they welcomed the call to disclose the source of funds for political campaigns.
“This was mooted before the opening of nominations for candidates. We believe that there is nothing sinister or malicious about the guidelines because it seeks to avoid something similar to what happened to CR when there was a call for the unsealing of the bank accounts relating to his campaign,” he said.
“But there is no logic in attaching deadlines to the disclosures when there’s only a month before the conference. Besides that, as it relates to Khabazela so far there’s no money that has been utilised because we haven’t had any bid tally or something of that sort,” he added.
Ntuli said he welcomed the call for financial disclosure of campaigns. “I think it’s a great intervention to minimise the use of money to determine the outcome of the ANC leadership. I am willing and prepared to submit whatever information required by the electoral
committee.”
After losing out his position as KwaZulu-Natal secretary, Ntuli has been criss-crossing the country garnering support to succeed suspended ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule.
He told Sunday World he was humbled by the backing he was getting from different provinces.
“I am convinced the work I have done in the past as the ANC national organiser for almost a decade, has exposed me to a number of comrades throughout the country. Of course, an added advantage is that I am a recent former provincial secretary of the ANC’s biggest province in terms of both membership and electoral support,” he said.
Follow @SundayWorldZA on Twitter and @sundayworldza on Instagram, or like our Facebook Page, Sunday World, by clicking here for the latest breaking news in South Africa. To Subscribe to Sunday World, click here.
