David Mabuza to open ANC NW conference as sitting finally goes ahead

ANC deputy president David Mabuza is expected to open the party's North West provincial conference in Rustenburg on Saturday morning.

The party is expected to elect new provincial leaders at the conference, which is being held at the Rustenburg Civic Centre. 

The ANC in the province has been led by an interim structure since its executive committee, led by ex-chair Supra Mahumapelo, was disbanded in 2018.

The conference is expected to be attended by over 1,200 delegates, 800 of whom will take part in the voting process.

The delegates will, apart from discussing the state of the party and municipalities, choose which of the five leaders contesting the chair position should lead the province.

The contenders are said to be Mahumapelo, premier Bushy Maape, interim provincial committee co-ordinator Hlomani Chauke, MEC for economic development and tourism Kenetswe Mosenogi and human settlements MEC Nono Maloyi.

Chauke says they have dealt with all the disputes from branches and their members which have seen the conference postponed several times.

He was confident a branch member challenging the conference in court was not a factor.

Chauke said that the interim provincial committee has managed to rebuild the party's 316 branches after a difficult process confronted with challenges such as the Covid-19 pandemic, the lockdown and the poor state of municipalities. .

“When we started there was no single branch of the ANC that was alive, we had to start afresh to build these branches. And now the most important part is the quality of cadres that we produce from these branches, the calibre of membership that we must have in these branches.

“There's a programme of political education that the incoming provincial executive committee must focus on, train these members of the ANC to understand and know what is the ANC, the aims and objectives of the ANC, the principles of the ANC,” Chauke said.

He said that the interim committee was also able to take the province to the 2021 local government elections despite all the challenges the structure had faced.

“It has been a few months since these elections and despite having suffered a decline in electoral support, we have managed to win the majority of our municipalities in the province.

“Of the 23 municipalities, the ANC won 20 and three are hung municipalities with the ANC-led coalition at their helm.”

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