Cape Town - Last-minute jockeying accompanied the arrival of hundreds of ANC delegates in the Mother City ahead of the party’s highly anticipated elective conference in the Western Cape this weekend.
Seven hundred voting delegates will elect a new leadership on Saturday, with members from across the province predicting that the current leadership will be re-elected for the sake of continuity. Others believe change is necessary.
By late Thursday, ANC members were gathering in small groups at various venues in and around the city including Sea Point, Athlone and Crossroads, discussing the future leadership of the province.
Insiders claimed three strong caucuses have emerged in the ANC ranks in the Western Cape including the so-called Songezo Mjongile/Marius Fransman caucus, the unity and diversity (UID) caucus, and the Andile Lili caucus.
Small splinter groups, including those formerly linked to the old Mcebisi Skwatsha camp seem to have fallen off the map, while the party’s youth, women and veterans leagues each have their own thoughts on preferred candidates to unite the party in the province.
ANC members were planning to burn the midnight oil in order to thrash out any obstacles that could hamper the leadership ambitions of their preferred candidates.
Behind closed doors, members were discussing possible compromises and deals to bring unity with the deadline pressure building.
While incumbent chairman Marius Fransman is set to be elected unopposed for a second term, he was not overly concerned about whether or not he would be nominated.
Fransman said, with his term as leader in the province coming to an end, he was satisfied that the ANC had achieved what it had set out to do when the provincial leadership took office in 2011.
“We have been able to bring warring factions closer together, we have worked to unite and get party members talking again; that is an achievement,” he said.
Fransman has continuously denounced the province’s slates list culture saying it was the root cause of deep divisions in the province and should not be tolerated.
“If we look at the regional conference held in the party’s six regions in recent months – no clear slates have emerged in any of the regional conferences. We’ve seen unity at work here. We have brought people together and this shows that the ANC in the Western Cape is moving beyond the culture of factionalism,” he added.
Fransman said it should be the responsibility of every voting delegate at this weekend’s conference to question how to get rid of slates and factionalism, irrespective of who they support.
ANC members predict that the weekend’s conference will run smoothly but will have its fair share of turbulent moments. However, insiders claimed for the first time “people will not be voting for slates”.
And while Fransman is said to top almost all the slate lists doing the rounds in the run-up to the conference, no clear challenger has emerged to take him on.
Without clear opposition, the post for provincial secretary might turn out to be the most hotly contested, with possible challengers to incumbent provincial secretary Songezo Mjongile including ANC MPL Khaya Magaxa, Andile Lili and Bruce Kannemeyer.
Asked about his nomination, Magaxa was vague as to whether he would stand, only saying he would wait for the weekend.
UID supporters who have been most outspoken against the current leadership, have not named their preferred candidate for chairman, but insiders claimed several big names, including Shaun Byneveldt, the country’s ambassador to Syria, and former minister Trevor Manuel had been approached.
Deputy Human Settlements Minister Zou Kota Fredericks, Lerumo Kalako and Hishaam Mohamed are also favourites for deputy chair and deputy secretary positions respectively, while Patrick Mngxunyeni and Truman Prince appear to be the front-runners for treasurer.
Political Bureau