The African National Congress’s national leadership has postponed the party’s provincial elections amid fears that branches will re-elect Makhenkesi Stofile as chairperson, say party insiders.
The directive for the postponement of the conference, which was to
be held this weekend in Umtata, came from ANC secretary general Kgalema Motlanthe on Wednesday, said ANC provincial secretary Humphrey Maxhegwana. The province’s leadership is yet to be given a reason for the postponement.
Party insiders in the Eastern Cape claimed that Luthuli House had been persuading both Stofile and the ANC’s deputy chairperson, Finance MEC and former trade unionist Enoch Godongwana, not to stand for re-election.
Motlanthe however dismissed the claims and said that the conference had been postponed because the dates had not been set by the national task team deployed to the Eastern Cape. He said it was the task of the team, led by national chairperson Mosiuoa Lekota, to convene the conference.
When the Mail & Guardian pointed out that the ANC’s national spokesperson, Smuts Ngonyama, had confirmed the conference dates to the newspaper last week, Motlanthe said: “He has also been misled.”
The task team will now meet the provincial structures on Tuesday to decide on a new date for the conference.
A senior ANC national executive committee member remarked: “The national leadership is going to continue to postpone the elections until they are certain of achieving the result they want.”
Before the ANC’s national executive committee (NEC) meeting last month, party insiders said the provincial leadership had indicated to Luthuli House it was experiencing certain procedural problems, and wanted the head office’s approval to proceed with the conference.
“When our officials returned from the NEC meeting without having received any objections, we believed we had the approval to press ahead,” said an ANC member in the Eastern Cape.
The ANC’s national leadership overturned as irregular the election of a new Eastern Cape leadership in November.
Stofile was elected chairperson last year, beating Luthuli House’s favoured candidate Mluleki George, while Godongwana beat the other national leadership favourite, Thobile Mhlahlo, for the deputy chairperson’s position.
However, open resistance by many NEC members last year forced the reinstatement of the old provincial executive until elections were held.
A national task team, led by Lekota, was then deployed to the Eastern Cape. The team is dominated by members closely associated with President Thabo Mbeki, including former chief whip Tony Yengeni, Minister of Public Enterprises Jeff Radebe, Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang and NEC member Dumisani Makhaye.
Besides Stofile and Godongwana, Maxhegwana, another leftist member of the ANC, was expected to be re-elected this weekend.
The Eastern Cape ANC has historically been close to the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the South African Communist Party.
The crackdown on the ANC’s provincial structures last year came amid allegations that the Eastern Cape was a hotbed of “ultra-leftists” who were planning to bid for positions on the national executive committee at the party’s national conference in December.