Rehana Rossouw
DOOR-TO-DOOR campaigning has already started in some Free State towns as African National Congress members rally support for their candidates for the election of new leaders in the forthcoming provincial conference.
A drive for new members is also under way to win seats on the regional executive – amid complaints in areas known to support Patrick “Terror” Lekota of difficulty in obtaining recruitment packs.
There are currently 267 ANC branches in the province. The number will probably change in the run-up to the conference which is unlikely to be held before February next year.
Some ANC members claim there are branches which have not been properly constituted, and ANC regional leaders have admitted they issued membership to people who did not pay the required R12 membership fee.
Arrangements for the conference will be managed by the task group elected by the National Executive Committee to oversee the province. It comprises Labour Minister Tito Mboweni, parliamentary speaker Frene Ginwala, and MPs Malusi Gigaba, Dimpho Hani and Joe Nhlanhla.
The ANC will send organisers from other provinces to Free State regions to certify membership and monitor the recruitment of new members.
“People are queuing to join the ANC. We’ve had teachers, nurses and even policemen asking for membership cards because they want to be involved in the election of a new premier and chairperson,” said a Bothaville ANC member.
But the branch has only received one recruitment pack from the Free State regional office this year. Each pack contains 240 membership applications.
Bothaville ANC members claim their branch’s request for more packs has been ignored because it supports Lekota. They claim the ANC regional leadership deliberately skewed the distribution of the packs to limit support for him.
“We discovered that the Goldfields region, Qwa-Qwa region and Sasolburg region each received 25 packs. Look at the way they were distributed in the Sasolburg region: 15 packs were given to Parys, which is (ANC Free State former chair) Pat Matosa’s stronghold, nine were given to Koppies, and Kroonstad received only one. Kroonstad’s population is bigger than Parys and Koppies combined,” the Bothaville branch complained.
“We suspect ANC organisers are being manipulated to boost support in areas where people will not necessarily support Terror. The task group will have to investigate this as a matter of urgency. We want to embark on a recruitment drive and we need those packs.
“We are working as though this is a real election in which all people can participate. We are going out every night, knocking on doors and asking people to join the ANC.”
ANC members in Welkom claim they do not have a single recruitment pack, despite requesting them on several occasions from the regional office. Members there are also planning a door-to-door campaign.
ANC members in Bloemfontein say if the task group discovers there are people who received membership cards without paying a R12 fee, the membership should be cancelled immediately.
The ANC recently redivided the city into three zones, and a hectic recruitment drive has already started.
This is not the first time allegations have been made in the Free State that recruitment has been unorthodox.
Former Housing MEC Vax Mayekiso was found guilty by an ANC disciplinary hearing of distributing 17 packs unconstitutionally in the run-up to the local government elections.