Disgruntled ANC Boland members plan to nullify elective conference

Disgruntled ANC members from the Boland Region in the Western Cape are planning to have the recent elective conference nullified. 

Court papers yet to be filed but seen by Daily Maverick call for the conference to be declared null and void as displeased members claim there were irregularities. 

This comes against the backdrop of similar problems in the Eastern Cape, where an East London court nullified the Buffalo City Metro’s ANC Dr WB Rubusana region, placing the election of chairperson Oscar Mabuyane in jeopardy.

The Boland region – the party’s second biggest – held its seventh regional conference from 30 September to 2 October 2022. 

The first sitting was postponed last month due to security concerns. Delegates had reported that some of them were surrounded by men brandishing guns who attempted to force them to vote for their preferred candidates. 

Now it seems there were problems with the second sitting as well. 

Daily Maverick can reveal that a day before the conference was set to convene, the Interim Provincial Committee (IPC) sent a letter to the Boland Regional Task Team (RTT) and branch secretaries informing them that the Boland region had not yet met its 70% required threshold for a conference to be held.

The letter directed certain wards to urgently hold branch general meetings as some of the wards either did not reach quorum, failed verification and/or did not qualify for the regional conference. 

https://www.scribd.com/document/599407898/Letter-to-Boland-RTT-29-Sep

Despite the IPC’s letter, the conference went ahead and hours before official proceedings could go ahead, a lawyer’s letter highlighting the irregularities and attempting to interdict the conference was given to the IPC. 

ANC Western Cape spokesperson Sifiso Mtsweni said they had dealt with the matter and the conference went ahead as planned. 

The ANC is racing against time to convene other regional conferences for three regions, namely Dullah Omar, Central Karoo and the Southern Cape. So far only three regions have held conferences in preparation for the national conference to be held in December. 

IPC coordinator Ronalda Nalumango confirmed that she wrote the IPC letter and when asked why the conference was not stopped, she said, “Our committee decided that the conference should go ahead. I raised the concerns as contained in the letter but we will deal with this in the working committee meeting.”

She declined to comment on what consequence the letter could have as it said the threshold was not met. 

Boland RTT convenor Nobantu Bushwana, who is part of the committee that received the letter, declined to comment. 

“The conference was unconstitutional,” said one delegate who asked to remain anonymous due to safety concerns. “The coordinator correctly encouraged us to go and do reruns because some branches were not in good standing.” 

He added that on the day some delegates could not get a place to sleep and food to eat. 

“Were told there were no more keys to rooms and about 25 of us had to sleep in vehicles while certain people had their friends in rooms booked for us by the party.”

“It was clear from the get go that people that supported certain slates were not welcome. We were expected to participate fully in the conference yet we did not eat and sleep properly.”

He also claimed money was exchanged for votes. Daily Maverick could not independently verify this.

IPC convener Lerumo Kalako denied these allegations saying they came from disgruntled members who were not happy that their preferred candidate did not win. 

“All delegates slept in hotels,” he said. “In fact we had extra rooms to such an extent that we are saying we over-booked rooms. The conference was signed off by the office of the secretary-general.”