THE ANC in the Free State is facing a real danger of not having the majority of its branches represented at the December elective conference.
This was the admission of interim provincial committee co-ordinator Oupa Khoabane on Monday, 10 October, as the count down for the crucial conference continues.
He highlighted a number of challenges encountered by the interim structure at the centre of which are branches unable to make up quorum for branch meetings.
He told Daily Sun it appears the system seemed to have been locked for the province, a problem that seems to be unique to the Free State.
Part of the frustration of the interim structure is that with 15 days to go before branch nominations are closed, less than 100 branches out of the 319 in the province had successfully held meetings.
These meetings are supposed to elect delegates to the conference.
Khoabane said the problem was compounded by the new membership system which has been rejecting most of the attempts to hold meetings in the province.
In a letter to provincial and branch secretaries, treasurer general Paul Mashatile acknowledged that this was a glitch that was being experienced across branches. “Consequently, the requirement to complete scanning within six hours from the start of the meeting has been scrapped.
The scanning can take place up to 11pm on the day of the BGM (branch general meeting),” he wrote. But Khoabane thinks this could be too late for the province to make up ground.
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He said the court challenge to disband the interim structure and replace it to prepare for the conference would not interfere with the progress that has already been made. The province was slapped with court papers last Friday but it was only served the papers on Monday.
