THE ANC national conference is running behind schedule due to registration delays.
Party spokesman Pule Mabe, updating journalists at the Nasrec Convention Centre on Friday, 16 December, admitted that the registration of delegates had hit a snag owing to scanners and load shedding.
However, said Mabe, those glitches had since been attended to and by this morning, over 3 000 of the expected over 4 000 delegates had already been accredited.
Mabe also revealed that a special national executive committee (NEC), held on Thursday, dealt with the matter of its MPs who voted with the opposition on the Phala Phala report at the National Assembly.
He said the NEC concluded that the five MPs, including senior member and Cooperative Governance Minister Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, should face disciplinary action.
“Towing the party line is something the ANC cannot renege on,” he said, adding that the matter would be referred to the incoming NEC.
“The ANC is not coming here to bury itself. We will say to them in our handover report that part of the issues you must attend to is this. Not towing the party line has the ability to erode the organisation. We don’t want our councillors to do this, and our MPLs.”
Just before noon, delegates were beginning to trickle inside the plenary.
Party chairman Gwede Mantashe told the few delegates that were already inside that due to registration delays, the conference would start at 2pm.
Mantashe said the report he was receiving from the registration centre was that there were delays.
16 Dec 2022
THE ANC elective conference will begin today, 16 December, at the Nasrec Convention Centre outside Joburg amid tensions between two factions.
These were further deepened a day before, when the party announced that it would be taking disciplinary action against National Executive Committee (NEC) member and Cooperative Governance Minister Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.
This after she voted with the opposition on the Phala Phala independent panel report in defiance of the party line.
Later on the day, former president Jacob Zuma released a statement, announcing that he would privately be prosecuting President Cyril Ramaphosa.
The charge, according to the statement, was that he was an accessory to criminal offence committee by, among others, National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) Advocate Billy Downer.
In the statement issued by the Jacob Zuma Foundation, Ramaphosa would be appearing in the South Gauteng High Court on 19 January.
In a statement, Ramaphosa dismissed the charges as spurious and unfounded. It revealed that the charge was related to a complaint by Zuma that the president did not act against Downer for allegedly leaking his medical condition.
Zuma is privately prosecuting Downer in a matter that is in the Pietermaritzburg High Court.
“Ramaphosa does not interfere in the work of the NPA nor does he have the power to do so. The president responded to Zuma, and took appropriate and legally permissible action,” said the Presidency.
The move further deepened hostilities between the two factions as the governing party is set to elect its new leader in a conference that had pitted Ramaphosa against former Health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize for presidency.
According to the draft programme, nominations for president, chairman, secretary general and treasury would be opened late today.
By Saturday, the nation would know whether Ramaphosa had retained his leadership of the party or been toppled.
One of the sticky issues expected to be debated is the Integrity Commission report on the Phala Phala matter.
The commission’s report was tabled at the recent NEC meeting, concluding that it should be discussed at the conference – the highest decision-making structure.
16 Dec 2022
THE ANC national conference is running behind schedule due to registration delays.
Party spokesman Pule Mabe, updating journalists at the Nasrec Convention Centre on Friday, 16 December, admitted that the registration of delegates had hit a snag owing to scanners and load shedding.
However, said Mabe, those glitches had since been attended to and by this morning, over 3 000 of the expected over 4 000 delegates had already been accredited.
Mabe also revealed that a special national executive committee (NEC), held on Thursday, dealt with the matter of its MPs who voted with the opposition on the Phala Phala report at the National Assembly.
He said the NEC concluded that the five MPs, including senior member and Cooperative Governance Minister Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, should face disciplinary action.
“Towing the party line is something the ANC cannot renege on,” he said, adding that the matter would be referred to the incoming NEC.
“The ANC is not coming here to bury itself. We will say to them in our handover report that part of the issues you must attend to is this. Not towing the party line has the ability to erode the organisation. We don’t want our councillors to do this, and our MPLs.
”Just before noon, delegates were beginning to trickle inside the plenary.
Party chairman Gwede Mantashe told the few delegates that were already inside that due to registration delays, the conference would start at 2pm.
Mantashe said the report he was receiving from the registration centre was that there were delays.
