Tshwarelo Hunter Mokakane
Pretoria - As the ANC’s provincial elective conference gets underway in Mpumalanga, political analysts believe the outcome will remain a judicial terrain for months to come.
Independent political analyst Goodenough Mashego told Pretoria News that the recent interdict against the conference being held in Emalahleni is just the beginning, as the ANC made mistakes that warrant court action.
“The outcomes of this ANC provincial elective conference will ring louder way beyond Sunday when the conference is expected to end. There is a possibility that the leadership that emerges on Sunday might not be the same that goes to the party’s national elective conference in December; especially if (the front runner) Mandla Ndlovu rushes to make provincial administrative changes, which might start with the recall of Premier Refilwe Mtsweni-Tsipani,” said Mashego on Friday.
Mashego said the conference was premised on wrong footing, altogether.
Members of the ANC chanting at Emalahleni Civic Centre ahead of the party's 13th Mpumalanga provincial conference. @MYANC #ANC #MpumalangaConference @IOL #Elections #Mpumalanga pic.twitter.com/jD2rpagCFF
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“We should expect the leadership that will be elected to face legal challenges, especially if it is made up of those who served in the disbanded Interim provincial executive committee. I think the mistake the ANC made with the disbandment was to redeploy those who ran the ANC since 2018 without an elective mandate to also form the Provincial Task Team (PTT). It created a player/referee scenario that if the Mandla Ndlovu-Lindiwe Ntshalintshali list prevails those who lose will mount challenges which if they are not ventilated within the ANC will spill over into courts,” he said.
The ANC is currently preparing to defend an urgent application to interdict the provincial conference.
Two ANC members, Vilankulo Francisco and Edward Mahlangu, submitted their application to the Johannesburg High Court on Thursday.
According to Mashego, this is only the beginning.
“If the Ndlovu faction is the one that wins the conference after weathering mounting legal storms then they might not be in power by the time of the next provincial elective conference. They might be disbanded on the same grounds the PTT was twice interdicted.
“If they back a horse that loses in December they will definitely be disbanded in 2023 on the grounds that some have called for the conference not to take place. If they back the winning horse then they will prevail but the ANC will go into 2024 weakened by the outcome of this weekend,” Mashego added.
On Friday morning, journalists were still queuing for accreditation due to delays that took place the day before.
Delegates have already been accredited and are expected to swing into the activities of the much-awaited conference.
Since his election to the deputy presidency of the governing party at the end of 2017, the ANC’s former provincial leader David Mabuza left a gap within the party in Mpumalanga.
His seat has not been filled due to factional battles of comrades keeping a keen eye on the 2022 December national elective conference.
However, Mabuza still has backing in the province, with Ndlovu, his former protégé, being the strongest politician to oppose his interests. The deputy president of South Africa has always been known to enjoy favourable conference outcomes when his opponents least expected it.
Pretoria News