Picture: The disgruntled ANC members protesting outside Mpekwa House in Mahikeng
By OBAKENG MAJE
The disgruntled ANC members in North West accused the ANC Provincial Executive Committee (PEC) of fiddling with the North West ANC Elections Nomination List. On 4 January 2024, the concerned ANC members, gathered outside ANC provincial office at Mpekwa House in Mahikeng to register their dispute.
The concerned ANC members spokesperson, Kefilwe Adindu said the ANC Elections Nomination List has been riddled with irregularities at an unprecedented rate and contradicts the actual preferences of the branches pursued through due democratic processes.
“This gathering is meant to register not only to dispute with the provincial ANC leaders but also with the National Executive Committee of the ANC through the Office of the Secretary-General (SG), as the ANC remains the custodian of its policies and processes, which unfortunately the ANC PEC, extended PEC and Provincial List Committee (PLC) have deliberately chosen not to observe and adhere to.
“This is about the failure of the above-mentioned structures to ensure compliance with established regulatory faculty applicable to the processes of the list nominations. The ANC Branch General Meetings (BGM) preferences or chosen representatives have been altered through bogus or parallel processes, which included falsifying the outcome of the BGMs and replacing the nomination lists,” she said.
Adindu further said the actual democratic results of the branches’ nominations were further not taken into consideration by the PLC and subsequently not presented for consideration when the ANC extended PEC processed the nomination. She added that the nominations were rather replaced by deal-making.
“This deal-making is evidenced by how participating structures have shared amongst themselves their own preferred candidates for the list. Hence it is dominated by those who are serving presently in the various structures that participated in the finalising of the nomination list.
“The guide for nominations has sought that those preferred should have matric plus post matric qualifications as well as the expertise and or experience, knowledge, and skills that would add positive impetus to the work of the ANC in both the Legislature and in government,” said Adindu.
She alleged that those preferred, are not necessarily those whose capacities are able to help the organisation. Adindu said there are about four individuals, who are allegedly not having matric and many hold no post-matric qualifications nor any of the capacities needed such as skills, knowledge, or experience relevant to help the ANC in Legislature or in government.
“The process was completed with no regard to the conducted interview outcome. The list includes one person who was never nominated nor attended the interviews. This includes two individuals, who were implicated in the Zondo Commission and or affected by Zondo-related investigations and or implicated in the allegations of having benefitted from State Capture corruption.
“The list demonstrated no regard for the inherent requirements prescribed in the guidance adopted by the ANC National Executive Committee (NEC). Whereas the guidance provides that, those affected by disciplinary process or having pending appeals against them should be disqualified, ANC NEC sub-Committee on disciplinary appeals failed to process the appeals/reviews against ANC PEC and the Provincial Disciplinary Committee (PDC),” she said.
Meanwhile, the ANC provincial spokesperson, Tumelo Maruping said: “Look, there are people who are hell-bent to try and destroy the ANC within. As the leadership of the organisation in North West, we are aware of the situation and we are not going to allow this nonsense to continue. Firstly, the individual who is leading this group of people calling themselves the concerned members of the ANC, has been found guilty by the ANC Provincial Disciplinary Committee of contravening Section 25 of the ANC Constitution.
“So, he does not stand any chance in complaining. I mean even complaining about the extended Provincial Executive Committee, which he was not even part of and did not qualify to stand as a nominee.”
Maruping said they were complaining about vetting and screening processes, but the report was not presented at the extended PEC. He said the guidelines of the ANC that have been adopted by the ANC National Executive Committee (NEC), are very clear.
“If you look at the 6.2 of that document, the responsibility of screening and vetting remains with the secretariat and the PNC. It does not say that the report must be presented at the extended PEC. What we do at the PEC, is to re-arrange the list, make inputs where we need to, and add or remove names if we wish to do so.
“However, there is a process that needs to be followed when you remove or add names to the list. So, the issues that they are raising are unfounded and as the ANC PEC in the province, we are confident that, we adhered to the guidelines to the core and we do not have any issues,” said Maruping.
The Guardian 