Warring factions in the Eastern Cape ANC will have to wait two more weeks to elect new leaders after the party decided to again postpone its provincial conference this weekend.
This comes after the provincial task team decided on Friday to go against the recommendation of Luthuli House that it convene its conference no later than April 28.
The conference had been mired in uncertainty this week, with national and provincial leaders non-committal on when it would take place.
Premier and provincial convener Oscar Mabuyane is going head to head with former ally Babalo Madikizela, who is also MEC for public works, for the position of chairperson.
Mabuyane is a known backer of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s bid for a second term. Madikizela’s slate comprises members of the so-called radical economic transformation faction.
Mabuyane’s supporters see the postponement as a victory after Madikizela and his supporters mounted a formidable challenge and claimed to have garnered enough support to topple the incumbent. They had wanted the conference to sit this weekend.
Addressing the media on Saturday provincial task team co-ordinator Lulama Ngcukayitobi said the the provincial conference had to be delayed because of internal problems.
“Those intra-organisational problems [are the] non-completion of the disputes from the structures of the organisation, who would have disputed the branch general meetings and its outcomes,” Ngcukayitobi said.
“So 160 disputes were lodged with the provincial dispute resolution committee and as of yesterday we have completed all of them except two, which will be completed by today.”
He said 50 disputes had been sent to the national office and it had managed to deal with 30 of them.
The conference is now set to sit between May 6 and 8.
Madikizela is running as chairperson with former OR Tambo district municipal speaker Xolile Nkompela as his deputy; Teris Ntutu as secretary, transport & community safety MEC; Weziwe Tikana-Gxothiwe as deputy secretary; and Andile Lungisa as treasurer.
In a boost for Madikizela’s camp, Ntutu’s criminal case relating to a R10m refuse bag tender in Mnquma municipality has failed after the high court in Mthatha declined to reinstate the charges. The case had been previously struck off the roll by the same court.
Ntutu, who is the regional secretary of the Amathole region, is one of the key campaigners on the slate.
Mabuyane’s slate has Ngcukayitobi as secretary, finance MEC Mlungisi Mvoko as deputy, and Helen Sauls-August as deputy secretary.
Mabuyane draws his main support from his home region of Chris Hani and OR Tambo, where Ngcukayitobi comes from. But OR Tambo support is understood to be split due to the campaign being run by Nkompela for deputy chairperson on the Madikizela slate.
Another candidate for chairperson is Mlibo Qoboshiyane. He has positioned his candidature as “the third way”, but ANC insiders say his campaign has failed to take off. Qoboshiyane is understood to be sympathetic to the Madikizela campaign.
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