Protests at the East London City Hall have marred the pre-registration of delegates to attend the ANC’s Dr WB Rubusana elective regional conference scheduled for next week.
Disgruntled members of a number of ANC branches in the Buffalo City Metro took to the streets on Thursday, to express their unhappiness with the way branch general meetings (BGMs) were conducted.
They blockaded the back entrance to the city hall, demanding that their grievances be addressed speedily by party bosses.
The region, which goes to conference from September 5-7 at a venue yet to be confirmed, will be the fifth to hold an elective conference in 2025, after the Chris Hani, OR Tambo, Alfred Nzo and Joe Gqabi regions held theirs a few weeks ago.
Nelson Mandela Bay and the Sarah Baartman regions have yet to hold their conferences, while Amathole’s gathering is scheduled to take place only in 2026.
The Rubusana region’s conference was initially scheduled for May but had to be postponed because branch meetings and political school classes for party members — a prerequisite for any region going to conference — had not been held.
With its three-year term of office having lapsed in May, the regional executive committee was dissolved late that month and replaced by a regional task team
At the time, the ANC resolved that outgoing regional chair Princess Faku, who doubles as BCM mayor, would lead the 25-member interim regional task team as regional convener, with regional secretary Antonio Carels as co-ordinator.
The task team was meant to prepare the region for its elective conference.
However, amid crippling factional infighting in the region, the provincial ANC took over the responsibility of organising branch meetings in preparation for the regional conference.
The region’s conference was then scheduled to sit between July 4 and 6 but was again shelved at the eleventh hour due to unresolved branch meeting disputes, problems with verification and other hurdles.
A long wait for a verification report from Luthuli House and disputes lodged by dissatisfied branches were reportedly among the factors behind the delay.
The region is divided along factional lines with one grouping, known as Imvula, or “The Rain”, said to be aligned to Carels, while the other, known as Ilanga (The Sun), is believed to support Faku.
Signalling a possible “third way”, Mbasa Satyi, a manager in Faku’s office, recently broke ranks and threw his hat into the ring, saying he would stand against the two regional secretary hopefuls proposed by the warring ANC slates.
On Thursday, the Rubusana region’s ANC Youth League chair, Loyiso Mkubelo, speaking on behalf of the disgruntled branches, said the protesters were there to “guard” the pre-registration process, to ensure it proceeded according to provincial ANC orders.
The party in the province had ordered that only qualified branches that did not have disputes pending should be allowed to register.
Mkubelo, who is aligned to the Imvula faction, said despite the order, branches with unresolved disputes had been allowed to register.
“There was a verification report issued in July nullifying some of the branches which we believe were convened according to regulations, which we believe sat successfully, but were unfairly nullified.
“That verification report is making an oppression, irritating and agitating the members of the ANC and causing chaos in our branches,” Mkubelo said.
He claimed that some branches that were not meant to register had done so on Thursday.
He said the verification report from ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula’s office, “does not reflect what transpired” at some branch meetings, adding that some branches that had conducted their business properly had been disqualified.
Mkubelo said the verification report had created cracks within ANC structures in the region and was not a true reflection of the outcome of the meetings at the affected branches.
He said all the protesters wanted was justice and believed they had a strong case that some of the disqualified branches had, in fact, sat successfully.
Speaking on behalf of the Ilanga faction, the ANC Youth League’s Ondela Sokomani dismissed Mkubelo’s concerns, saying the verification reports issued in July and last week were a true reflection of how branch meetings had panned out.
The latest verification report, dated August 24, shows that of the 50 ANC branches in the metro, 41 were qualified, while nine had been disqualified from sending delegates to participate in next week's conference.
The provincial ANC could not be reached for comment by the time of publication.
Daily Dispatch
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