The Pan Africanist Congress will focus on bringing stability to the party over the next six months, says Stanley Mogoba, the party’s president.
The national executive council (NEC) will hold a meeting next week to agree on one candidate for leadership, Mogoba said. “We will also discuss unresolved issues from congress.”
The party’s recent national congress in Umtata broke down amid accusations of gerrymandering and vote rigging. Members exposed the facts that groups of under-age children had been bused in as delegates.
The youngsters were allegedly bused in by deputy president Motsoko Pheko to vote for him as president in return for a trip to the zoo and R200 apiece.
Mogoba said the debacle was partly caused by administrative problems, which he laid at the door of secretary general Thami ka Plaatjie and national organiser Themba Godi.
The date of the next congress will be discussed at the NEC meeting next week. The congress will elect new office holders. Maxwell Nemadzivhanani, the PAC’s Limpopo chairperson, said members were hoping to hold the congress and have a new president by April.
“Our plans for the year include the further growth of the party, which is already growing at a phenomenal rate,” Mogoba said.
“But most of our time this year will be spent on fund-raising for the 2004 elections. We will also establish strategies for the elections.”
Delegates at the failed congress who want to remain anonymous say they have lost confidence in Ka Plaatjie’s organisational ability. Ka Plaatjie was responsible for the congress’s administration. Now he might be eliminated as one of the four candidates for the presidency.
Ka Plaatjie would not fall alone. Factions want deputy president Pheko to be disqualified from the race after his stunt.
Nemadzivhanani claims to be the only candidate who was not implicated in the vote-rigging shenanigans at the congress.
“My team is still campaigning and I’m looking good being the only one that has not been implicated,” he said.
Mogoba said what happened at the congress would reflect on all candidates, “but some more than others”.