adminJOHANNESBURG. — Newly-elected ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa’s camp is deeply divided by the dispute over Senzo Mchunu’s defeat. A leader from a province that supported Mchunu has dismissed the dispute lodged over 63 “non-existent” votes, and has urged the rest of the Ramaphosa team to accept that Ace Magashule is the new secretary general.
“We must move on, we were not successful. We shouldn’t fight over the outcome and risk creating chaos, and have uncertainty in the party and the ANC,” he said. This could collapse the conference, the worried leader, who did not want to be identified, said.
The ANC elective conference’s steering committee met yesterday morning over the dispute and it is now expected that the matter will be discussed at the next plenary session.
News24 has seen a video of the Ramaphosa caucus meeting yesterday morning, showing a leader that appears to be Gauteng ANC deputy chairperson David Makhura telling gathered delegates to fight over the matter when it is discussed in plenary.
If not resolved, the issue could delay the voting for 80 members of the party’s all-powerful national executive committee (NEC).
“We know that if that matter is not resolved, even when they go to vote for additional (members of the NEC), they will be disenfranchised, and that is not good,” the leader, holding a loud hailer, is heard saying.
Some senior Gauteng ANC members have said the leader is Makhura, who is now standing in for provincial chairperson Paul Mashatile, after he won the treasurer-general position.
The leader tells the crowd that Monday’s results were announced before the steering committee had resolved on whether the delegates were valid or not, and that the final tally did not include the votes that were quarantined in an envelope.
The speaker claims that five provinces behind Ramaphosa had raised the matter in the steering committee.
Mchunu’s supporters lodged a dispute, demanding that the 63 “quarantined” votes be added to the final tally.
However, speaking against the move, another source said that the votes were from disqualified delegates who had been thrown out of the conference after they had already been given accreditation cards.
“They were not on the voters’ roll because they were disqualified. When the verification process threw them out, they had already received their tags, but they refused to return them,” the source said.
He added that the independent election agency managing the process had allowed them to vote because they had insisted, despite not appearing on the voters’ roll.
However, they had then been excluded from the final count because they were “illegally” at the conference.
He said the initial figure of 68 mentioned referred to delegates who did not turn up for the overall vote. The ANC had accredited 4 776, but only 4708 voted.
Magashule won 2 360 votes, while Mchunu received 2 336.
The Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma camp that lost the presidency has threatened that, if a recount of the secretary-general position is allowed, they will insist on a rerun of the election for the entire top 6.
North West ANC chairperson Supra Mahumapelo told News24’s Polotiki that the dispute risked damaging the image of the party.
“Certain things, you have to accept, to live within the ANC, even if you are not happy or uncomfortable with certain positions,” said Mahumapelo.
There is worry in the Ramaphosa camp that his presidency will be weak, after the Dlamini-Zuma camp scored three critical positions of deputy president, secretary-general and deputy secretary-general.
The camp is hoping to win a majority in the vote for the NEC, to ensure control of the body.
Meanwhile, the ANC Women’s League (ANCWL) yesterday expressed its dissatisfaction with the outcome of the ANC top six. They also accused ANC deputy president David Mabuza and secretary-general Ace Magashule for using presidential candidate Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma to advance their own campaigns.
ANCWL national spokesperson Toko Xasa as well as league president Bathabile Dlamini blamed patriarchy in the ANC for the outcome of the result.
Xasa went on to accuse Magashule and Mabuza of using the ANCWL and Dlamini-Zuma to further their own ambitions for the top posts.
“They did not pull the candidate up. They used it (Dlamini-Zuma’s campaign) as a ladder for themselves — that one we are not shy to say.
“They used that as a ladder for themselves. It’s our demonstration to you to say this is how patriarchy is rearing its ugly head.”
Dlamini had strongly campaigned for Dlamini-Zuma despite two other high-ranking ANCWL members also expressing an ambition for the top job.
She said the results of the election of the top six were an attack on the gains of women and their struggles since the dawn of democracy.
“We feel the ANC has failed the women of South Africa,” Dlamini said pointing out that non-sexism was one of the party’s values.
“We fought a good fight and the struggle for the emancipation of women must continue. The ANC must take a decision on how women are going to be affirmed. This was history in the making for women. For the first time we had a women in the ballot paper,” she said.
The top six currently consists of five men and one woman. Jessie Duarte is the only woman representative in the top six.
“Comrade Tambo must be turning in his grave. There is no doubt about that . . . We feel that men that were in the campaign, that had the face of a woman, made it (as elected) officials, but that women (were) not voted as officials,” she said referring to Magashule and Mabuza.
Xasa said the ANCWL’s senior leadership would not resign after its failure to ensure their candidate was elected.
In fact, she said, they were proud to have changed the status quo.
“We had to work around convincing the ANC itself. Even when you look at branch delegates, mostly they are men.
“The 60 which is the delegations of the ANCWL would have made that number needed to vote for her.”
She said the league intends on raising its position on gender equality within the party in commissions such as the one on organisational renewal. — News24.
Online Reporter