ANC burdened with disputes
The KZN ANC is racing against time to resolve disputes over the auditing of branch membership.
|||Durban - The ANC in KwaZulu-Natal is racing against time to resolve disputes over the auditing of branch membership in an attempt to forestall problems at its provincial conference this weekend.
The party is holding an elective conference which has pitted incumbent provincial chairman Senzo Mchunu against provincial secretary Sihle Zikalala for the top position.
However, the party is saddled with disputes from some branches as they seek to obtain voting status after they failed membership audits.
This comes after the branches held general meetings, which were crucial for branches to enjoy representation and have a say in leadership election.
On Wednesday, the Daily News learnt that national leaders, led by Deputy Health Minister Joe Phaahla, were in Durban attending to complaints.
An estimated 40 complaints have been lodged, with the highest figure reportedly coming from the eThekwini region.
Sources said it was important that the disputes were resolved if the conference was to get under way.
“In eThekwini there are branches that failed the membership audit, but they were allowed to do pre-registration,” said the source, who is not authorised to speak to the media.
The sources claimed there were at least 11 branches that should not have been granted voting status in eThekwini.
Branches in the Inkosi Bhambatha and Ukhahlamba regions were also named as having lodged complaints.
The voting status of eThekwini’s Ward 6, the Inchanga home branch of mayor James Nxumalo, remained unclear on Wednesday after disgruntled members petitioned national leadership.
Nkosinathi Mkhize, one of the disgruntled members, said they were still waiting to make representation to the national leadership after they lodged a complaint over the convening of a branch meeting.
The Nxumalo-aligned members recently took to the streets complaining about irregularities, including food parcels that were allegedly dished out to supporters of regional rival Zandile Gumede, and the locking out of some members.
Mkhize told the Daily News that they had been called to two meetings on Saturday scheduled for the same time, but they could not honour them owing to short notice.
He said the unofficial information he had was that Ward 6 did not pass the audit.
Zikalala could not be reach-ed for comment, as he was reportedly attending meetings.
Phaahla confirmed that national leaders tasked to oversee KZN, were attending to complaints.
“When there is a provincial conference, the higher structure that oversees the preparations is the national executive committee.
“So our role is to work with the province to address issues relating to the conference preparations, including the disputes,” he said.
Phaahla would not be drawn into commenting further on the nature and amount of the of the complaints, other than to say “quite (a number of) issues” were being looked into.
Meanwhile, psychological warfare was raging on social media as the contesting camps bragged about the number of branches they had already bagged .
The figures could not be independently verified amid reports that the audit was still under way.
Daily News
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