ANC to name election candidates

18/03/2016. ANC Secretary General, Gwede Mantashe speaks to the media at the Saint Georges Hotel. Picture: Thobile Mathonsi

18/03/2016. ANC Secretary General, Gwede Mantashe speaks to the media at the Saint Georges Hotel. Picture: Thobile Mathonsi

Published May 28, 2016

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Johannesburg -

The ANC will on Saturday emerge from its national list conference with candidates who will contest the local government elections despite protests internally over the suitability of many of them.

Some of the party’s members from as far as the Northern Cape and North West staged protests outside the conference venue in Pretoria on Friday over alleged irregularities in the selection process, but the ANC has dismissed them.

Addressing the media, ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe said the conference had already wrapped up the list of candidates from some provinces, including Mpumalanga, which he praised for reaching the 50/50 gender parity and 20% youth thresholds.

“Many of the problems have to do with people who want to be councillors willy-nilly, that it must be me and nobody else, and there are many of those instances.

“That is what we deal with on a daily basis. When individuals want to be councillors, they go out and mobilise communities and can do anything.

“That is the desperation we are witnessing in this process and we understand it,” said Mantashe.

The issues concerning the nomination process in the Northern Cape had gone through the necessary processes, and the last line of defence in the process was a team of national officials to address the matter, he said.

Members from the province are protesting that some of the processes at branch level had been manipulated, the same complaint that has characterised the process in other provinces.

“If a branch says number one on the list was actually number two that is dealt with at regional level and then the provincial list committee. If they are not happy it then comes to us (national list committee).

“The last line of defence is the appeals committee of national officials, and that is what the Northern Cape has gone through. No matter has gone there but the Northern Cape had potential to go there and that is why the DSG (Jesse Duarte) was listening to them,” said Mantashe.

The contest over who gets to be a councillor has in some instances resulted in violent clashes and deaths of candidates.

Councillors enjoy certain perks and a municipal council salary.

Final lists of candidates will be endorsed by the national executive committee, which sits immediately after the list conference today.

Pretoria News Weekend

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