The African National Congress (ANC) will proceed with compiling its provincial and national lists – even if only 51% of its branches have completed their candidate selection processes.
The party’s National Executive Committee extended the deadline for branches to complete their candidate selections from September to October the 15th.
On Sunday, the party will assess how many branches have complied and Secretary for the ANC Electoral Committee, Livhuwani Matsila, says the intention is to try to push on to vetting candidates, holding interviews and training the aspirant provincial and national representatives.
This is to ensure they can join the party’s election campaign in January 2024.
Secretary of the ANC’s Electoral Committee, Chief Livhuwani Matsila, outlined the core mandate behind the work performed by the Committee.
However, its bid to ensure that the party’s 4 000 branches complete the process of selecting candidates to represent them at provincial and national legislatures has so far been arduous.
In September, just 46% of branches had completed their work necessitating a three-week extension until mid-October.
With that deadline having passed, the Committee will on Monday assess the progress.
Matsila says that there will be a push to complete the lists and get candidates working for an ANC victory in the 2024 general elections.
“Almost 51% of the branches should have completed the process as envisaged compared to 46% at the time when we requested the extension so the issue is to distinguish between the 70% requirement which is in the constitution for the elective conference this is not the elective conference but a candidate selection process for which a majority of branches should be enough for us to proceed obviously we prefer that more than fifty percent of the branches would have qualified and went ahead and submitted the lists to the provincial offices.”
CHALLENGES
Matsila acknowledges that there have been challenges. “Some of the challenges the branches have faced is not getting their QR codes in time, disputes around the membership of members and collectively, disputes around the good standing of the branches, all of this needed time to be resolved, the electronic system that we are implementing does present problems from time to time but we are working on it and it seems to be working well so far.”
The Committee has introduced strict guidelines for the process, among them that candidates must have a minimum matric qualification and no criminal record.
Those found guilty by ANC disciplinary processes or who have had their membership suspended in the last ten years are also not eligible.
However, those who still have pending issues with the party’s Integrity Commission may still be nominated.
“If the Integrity Commission has not made adverse findings and made such recommendations to the NEC comrades won’t be disqualified until such time that there are firm recommendations that have been accepted and implemented by the Integrity Commission because that is how the rules work so if comrades are still to appear or are still appearing and there is not outcome they will not be affected until a different outcome is achieved.”
Following tomorrow’s meeting, the Electoral Committee will ask the ANC’s Secretary General to convene a National Executive Committee meeting where it can make recommendations on the process to be followed, including vetting, interviewing, and training of candidates.
