Durban — The ANC in eThekwini is insisting on nominating former eThekwini mayor Zandile Gumede to serve in the top five in the coming provincial conference despite a step-aside rule which forbids members who are facing criminal charges to contest positions.
Eighteen branches that were expected to conclude their meetings on Sunday were said to have nominated Gumede for the treasurer position. This was despite the party’s national executive committee decision which announced in April that no member who is facing criminal charges would be allowed to contest for a position in the coming conferences.
Defending the branches’ decision, eThekwini regional secretary Musa Nciki told the Daily News on Sunday that there was nothing wrong in nominating Gumede, saying the NEC had no powers to amend the constitution but only the conference in December would determine the future of members who had “stepped aside”.
He said once the conference took a resolution as it happened in the 2017 54th conference, where in drafting a step-aside rule did not bar members from contesting – so it will be a conference again that has powers to amend that rule.
“As far as we know the NEC overstepped its authority. It does not have powers to amend the party constitution or a decision taken at the conference so we are continuing with our decision as eThekwini region that we want Gumede to serve as treasurer in the top five,” said Nciki.
He added that his region has concluded that it wanted the current provincial secretary Mdumiseni Ntuli and Gumede in the top five, saying for the other three positions they were open to engagements with other regions.
ANC provincial spokesperson Nhlakanipho Ntombela said he did not think the region would succeed in what it was doing because the conference would not allow her to contest because of the step-aside rule.
Nciki also said the region has managed to sit more than 70 branches and 18 were expected to finish their meetings later on Sunday, saying they are targeting 80 branches to go with to the conference, which will give them more than 400 delegates.
The region is the biggest and will bring more than a quarter of the delegates to the conference. The number of delegates is expected to be 1 500. Of these 1 300 will vote, while 200 will be non-voting delegates.
The conference which was supposed to take place this coming weekend was postponed to next week because branches failed to make a 70% threshold cut.
Daily News