(Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)
The ANC’s Moses Mabhida regional conference has been postponed indefinitely after dissatisfied branch members threatened to go to court to stop it from going ahead.
The region, which includes Pietermaritzburg, Richmond, Mooi River and Camperdown, was one of two which were meant to have held elective conferences on Thursday, ahead of the August 31 deadline for outstanding conferences set by the ANC national executive committee.
The other, Harry Gwala, which like Moses Mabhida has been hit by a wave of political killings since 2015, is set to go ahead. A third region, Lower South Coast, will not hold its conference until after the national and provincial elections next year.
Moses Mabhida is one of the ANC regions placed under the leadership of a regional task team (RTT) in the wake of the high court battle that saw the province go to the December national conference with no provincial executive committee.
ANC spokesperson Nomagugu Simelane-Zulu told Mail & Guardian that the conference was postponed ‘’until further notice’’ following the threat of court action by branches.
She said the branches had complained that the preparations for the conference had been carried out by only one of the two factions represented on the 22 member Regional Task Team and that they were unhappy with the result.
‘’We met with the RTT and the branches over the threat of the interdict. After consideration we decided to postpone the conference until further notice,’’ said Simelane-Zulu.
She said a follow up meeting to address the branch concerns would be held on Thursday or Friday.