News24.com | Western Cape ANC rushes to meet deadline to convene conference

The ANC in the Western Cape is racing to meet its deadline to convene its elective conference.

• The ANC in the Western Cape is racing to meet its deadline to convene its elective conference at the end of the month.
• Some senior ANC members say there's a strong possibility the conference will be held at the end of May.
• An interim leadership structure has been in place since the ANC’s provincial executive committee was disbanded in 2019

The ANC in the Western Cape is racing against time to convene its elective conference with just a few days to meet its deadline. 

The ANC said it had held enough branch general meetings (BGM) over the past month and a half to reach the threshold to hold a provincial elective congress.

However, there have been some technical challenges with the ANC online membership system, which has invalidated some of the BGMs.

These branches have asked for assistance from the Dullah Omar Region interim leadership, interim provincial committee (IPC) and Luthuli House, but no help has been forthcoming. 

Some senior ANC members told News24 there was a strong possibility of the ANC reconvening and holding its conference at the end of May. 

ANC provincial spokesperson, Sifiso Mtsweni, said the region had exceeded the number of branches that have held BGM's.

He said:

Mtsweni admitted that there had been delays. 

"Indeed, there have been a lot of technical challenges which we have raised with national, and in most cases, these were resolved, but they did in some way contribute to delays in convening BGMs in some cases. We have not revised the conference date. We are pushing to conclude all the BGMs this weekend as our deadline is the end of April," he said. 

The ANC in the province had announced last year that it would hold its conference in early 2023 following numerous postponements.

In July last year, the party said the conference would be held between 31 August and 2 September. When the conference failed to materialise in August, it set new dates for 30 September to 2 October. The dates then jumped to 30 April. 

An interim leadership structure has been in place in the Western Cape since the ANC's provincial executive committee was disbanded in 2019.