The African National Congress’s head office put the brakes on the candidate selection process in its provinces after it emerged that its procedures for drawing up the lists were being flouted by its branches.
ANC provincial officials this week told the Mail & Guardian that some branches had submitted candidate lists without actually having met. In other cases the branches sent in lists decided at meetings without a quorum. Another common problem was that lists were submitted by branches “not in good standing”.
Generally, an ANC branch has to have 100 paid-up members and must have held an annual general meeting. In Gauteng 80 branches will have to give their provincial conference on October 26 a miss, because they are not in good standing, according to a statement released by the province.
Northern Cape ANC spokesperson Sipho Mbaqua said 18 branches that were “not in good standing” would not attend their list conference.
ANC presidential spokesperson Smuts Ngonyama also confirmed that auditing teams had not been able to reach all the provinces to verify their list procedures before they were due to hold their conferences.
A review of five provincial nomination lists that have been released also shows that members are sticking with favourite candidates despite Luthuli House’s instructions to keep candidates with criminal records and a history of ill discipline and corruption out of their election lists.
Convicted fraudster Tony Yengeni’s name featured in Mpumalanga’s draft list for Parliament, while KwaZulu-Natal chose to nominate former ANC Women’s League president Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, who has been found guilty on 43 counts of fraud and 25 counts of theft.
Explaining the decision to postpone the provincial list conferences, ANC secretary general Kgalema Motlanthe said: “We merely want to give the branches more time to ensure the general meetings are properly constituted and to ensure proper consultation has taken place.”
The round of provincial list conferences is now expected to be completed by the first week of November. The ANC will then hold a national list conference, in mid-November, to finalise its candidates for the 2004 election.
Meanwhile, the Western Cape branch of the Congress of South African Trade Unions has urged the ANC to stop the “mad pursuit of jobs” and focus on the interests of working families.
This comes as provincial ANC officials try to resolve damaging internal tensions during a two-week postponement of the provincial list conference to determine candidates for public elected office. There appears to be widespread acknowledgement in the ranks of the ANC in the province that rivalries stem from competition for posts in the provincial cabinet.
There is also concern in some ANC circles that an intervention by the national office may follow should rivalries be allowed to drag on.
This week Western Cape secretary general Mcebisi Skwatsha played down tensions around the two rival lists. “The lists or any other list are not official documents of the ANC,” he said. “It’s lobbying.”