THE AFRICAN National Congress (ANC) Interim Provincial Committee ( IPC) in the North West has confirmed that the long-awaited provincial conference will finally be held this coming weekend.
The ninth provincial conference has already been postponed thrice, due to disputes from various branches. The announcement to continue with the provincial conference was made in Rustenburg.
The IPC says about 112 disputes were lodged by various branches in the province. However, the majority were resolved by the Provincial Dispute Resolution committee, with about 40 appeals lodged.
Some of the appeals have seemingly been resolved, paving the way for the provincial conference to proceed.
“Currently in terms of the province, we are ready for the conference as we have said that the date we have set up is from the 12th to 14th. These are the dates for the conference.
So in between that will be registration, there will be the starting of the conference. But the main issue that we are dealing with is that the national is busy concluding in terms of the appeals. Verdicts are being issued, we have received the first ten verdicts that came in out of about 40,” says IPC Coordinator Hlomane Chauke.
The IPC says they are optimistic that they will have an incident-free conference.
“We wish to see a conference of the ANC in the North West. Free from all of this culture we all know that normally when certain activities of this nature happen, there will be chaos in the province. This time around we believe strongly that the work that we have done and the opportunity given to our members to appeal and to lodge disputes, cannot be more emphasised but it’s something that we really appreciate”, says Chauke.
A political analyst at the North West University believes that this conference will be highly contested.
“What is clear is that a number of candidates are going to contest the position of the chairperson. At least five people are involved in that contest. I think the main contestations are going to be between Bushy Maape and Nono Maloi.”
“My concerns, however, is that the North West province is very much divided we have seen conflicts and instability in some parts of the province, hopefully, this time we can be successful in terms of an elective conference for the ANC,” says Analyst Prof Andre Duvenhage.
Registration for the provincial conference is expected to commence on Friday, while the actual official opening will be on Saturday. It is expected to end on Sunday.
Image (Hlomane Chauke, NW IPC coordinator says they’re ready to host the elective congress this week).
