Delegates on the third day of the ANCs 55th conference at Nasrec rallied behind President Cyril Ramaphosa and Dr Zweli Mkhize who battled for the ANC president position. Picture: Oupa Mokoena/African News Agency (ANA)
Cape Town - The new ANC leadership elected on Sunday night is expected to be seized with addressing the governing party’s dwindling membership which has plummeted in at least eight provinces by more than 300 000.
This was just during the five-year term of the outgoing ANC national executive committee (NEC) led by Cyril Ramaphosa with David Mabuza as his deputy, Gwede Mantashe as national chair, and Paul Mashatile treasurer-general while suspended Ace Magashule was deputised by the late Jessie Duarte.
The shocking figures were contained in the party’s organisational report that was tabled in the closed session before delegates voted for the new Top 7 during the 55th national conference held at Nasrec Expo Centre at the weekend.
The new leadership was only announced hours after this publication’s deadline.
In the party’s report only the Western Cape ANC managed to increase its membership by a mere 6 000 more members.
This is likely to cause the new leadership more woes as the party has long lost control of the province, which has been in the hands of the DA.
The membership exceeded the one million target in 2012 when it registered 1 220 057. The report shows that Mpumalanga lost more than 100 000 members in the past five years.
Among the stumbling blocks for the party’s growth are the “remnants” of the culture of gate-keeping and attempts at manipulation of the ANC processes.
Most of these disturbing features include the resistance of some members to discard old practices that the system was built to eradicate.
Through feedback from structures and members, there are indications that some of the branch secretaries refuse to forgo gate-keeping by unilaterally refusing to process membership applications and/or abuse of some of the powers conferred on them as administrators of the system. This is a challenge that is receiving attention.
The report also said many branches were exposed that they were struggling to form a quorum when convening their meetings.
“Some use the tactics to by-pass or work against the system by employing all sorts of tricks to convene meetings in contravention of the guidelines and constitution of the ANC
“This is not so much about the system but rather a sub-culture that the ANC will definitely have to deal with in order to transform such behaviour.
“If individuals resist, then the ANC must ensure that appropriate disciplinary processes are followed to rid itself of such behaviour and or individuals in the spirit of its renewal agenda,” read the report.
The tabling of the report came as allegations of tampering with the voters’ roll by delegates said to be backing Ramaphosa have surfaced.
A highly placed source and delegate on the inside revealed the information to Independent Media said they had caught “Ramaphosa’s supporters” tampering with the voters’ roll with the intention to remove delegates believed to be supporters of former health minister Zweli Mkhize.
A source who asked not to be named said the culprits were found out by a KwaZulu-Natal provincial leader who refused to give his name.
He said the leader confronted the culprits about what they were doing before he took the matter to a conference steering committee which then called all provincial secretaries to discuss the matter.
“As I’m talking to you provincial secretaries are going through the voters’ roll to see whether there was any tampering.
“These people want to steal the conference at all costs.
“They tried to bribe delegates by offering them R20 000 to vote for Ramaphosa. “Now they are trying to remove us from the voters’ roll,” said a delegate.
Approached for comment, the KZN ANC leadership and Zweli Mkhize’s campaign managers refused to be drawn.
Attempts to get comment from Ramaphosa’s lobbyists were also not successful.
Cape Times
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