Delegates to the ANC’s long-awaited Dr WB Rubusana regional elective conference in the Buffalo City Metro, scheduled to start on Friday, were still unsure late on Wednesday whether it would go ahead.
Neither the Eastern Cape ANC nor Luthuli House could provide clear answers by the time of publication.
A conference certificate — which gives the green light for an elective conference and is issued by the office of the secretary-general, Fikile Mbalula, had also yet to make its way to the organisers of the three-day gathering.
The Rubusana conference is expected to be tightly contested, with BCM mayor Princess Faku’s former position of regional chair on the line.
Faku’s bid is expected to be contested by a faction which supports former regional secretary Antonio Carels, who is expected to throw his hat into the ring.
The elective conference has been postponed numerous times since May, due to a variety of reasons, including challenges with the party’s membership verification system, unresolved branch meeting disputes and questionable verification reports.
After having been postponed once again earlier in September due to a number of unresolved disputes emanating from chaotic and sometimes violent branch general meetings, the congress was rescheduled to sit from September 19-21 at the East London City Hall.
Siyabulela Zangqa, the head of ANC provincial executive deployees in the region, confirmed this week that several branch disputes that had been escalated to the provincial ANC and the national office had since been resolved, resulting in about five branches rerunning their meetings over the past weekend.
Zangqa also confirmed that a conference certificate had yet to be obtained from Mbalula’s office.
Mbalula could not be reached for comment on Wednesday and the ANC’s national spokesperson, Mahlengi Bhengu, referred the Dispatch to media liaison officer Mothusi Shupinyane.
Shupinyane, in turn, referred questions to the Eastern Cape ANC, saying regional conferences were the responsibility of the province.
Eastern Cape ANC spokesperson Balungile Sapo said that “while there is no decision on whether there is a postponement or not, at the same time there is nothing that confirms that conference will go ahead this weekend”.
“While we do have the final verification report that was sent to us last week, there are still matters that are outstanding, which are branches in front of the PDRC [provincial dispute resolution committee] and branches in front of the NDRC [national dispute resolution committee].
“There were five branches that were in front of the NDRC, and their verdicts were issued last week, but as things stand, we do not have the certificate.
“This is because there are still those outstanding matters. So, on whether we will go ahead with conference this weekend or not, there is still no decision on that, as things stand. We will update once things are clear.”
The ANC national executive committee, Sapo said, had made it clear that before any conference could be convened, “the table must be cleared, and the SG [secretary-general] must issue a certificate to that particular region, but as things stand, that has not happened”.
Sapo, however, said a meeting had been scheduled for Wednesday evening, which could shed light on whether the weekend conference would sit or not.
Dr WB Rubusana would be the fifth ANC region in the Eastern Cape to go to conference this year, after Chris Hani, OR Tambo, Alfred Nzo and Joe Gqabi.
The Nelson Mandela Bay and Sarah Baartman regions have yet to hold their conference, while the Amathole region is due to convene in 2026.
Daily Dispatch
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