The African National Congress in the Western Cape has resolved that disciplinary procedures against chairperson Marius Fransman must be expedited.
Not only that, the party now wants Fransman suspended pending the outcome of the disciplinary process.
“The caretakers should recommend to the national executive committee (NEC) that Comrade Marius be suspended until the conclusion of the disciplinary processes,” provincial secretary Faiez Jacobs said in a statement following the three-day provincial executive committee (PEC) lekgotla.
Fransman was asked to step aside after he was accused of sexually harassing 21-year-old Louisa Wynand while they were travelling to the party’s January 8 celebrations in Rustenburg.
While he was campaigning for the party during the election campaign, the leader has mostly been on the sidelines for months.
The party also resolved to co-opt former ANC chief whip in the legislature Max Ozinsky onto the PEC.
During the lekgotla, the party discussed its performance in the local government elections, which saw it lose around 130 000 votes compared to 2011.
Candidate lists
They would now have to reinforce their “back to basics” approach, they said, with a particular focus on ensuring strong and healthy branches.
The party was plagued by candidate list protests in the province before the elections, with supporters bemoaning the process of selection.
Due to this, the party on Monday said it had decided that the PEC sub-committee on governance would verify whether the ANC’s rules on the identification and selection of candidates were followed.
They would investigate any violation, manipulation of the rules and processes and instances where the names of candidates were changed and then make recommendations to the PEC based on the findings.
Jacobs said the party did not support the calls for an early elective conference, following the ANC losing some of the country’s metros to opposition control.
“This would interfere with the ANC’s planning schedule, especially the impact on preparations and logistics for the national policy conference that usually precedes the national elective conference,” Jacobs said. – News24