Fransman sets out strategy for ANC

Cape Town-150627. The 8th ANC provincial conference took place over the weekend at the Peninsula Technikon . Marius Fransman(centre) was elected unopposed for Provincial Chairperson of ANC Western Cape. He is flanked here by Songezo Mjongile to his left. Picture: Jason Boud.Reporter: Jan Cronje

Cape Town-150627. The 8th ANC provincial conference took place over the weekend at the Peninsula Technikon . Marius Fransman(centre) was elected unopposed for Provincial Chairperson of ANC Western Cape. He is flanked here by Songezo Mjongile to his left. Picture: Jason Boud.Reporter: Jan Cronje

Published Jun 29, 2015

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Cape Town - Performance management will be a focal point of Marius Fransman’s second term as ANC Western Cape chairman after he was re-elected at the weekend.

Fransman said the new leadership will have to undergo assessments while occupying their new posts.

He also warned newly elected members that they will not be able to hide behind a collective when they have responsibilities to uphold.

Elected unopposed in the wee hours of Sunday morning at the party’s eighth provincial conference held at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) in Bellville at the weekend, Fransman told reporters he was “humbled” by the faith ANC members had placed in him.

With the ANC in the province being plagued by factional battles and in-fighting in recent years, this year’s conference was not disrupted.

Despite kicking off more than eight hours late, members were in high spirits as they gathered outside the conference venue.

Describing the conference as “unified” yet “extremely hotly contested” Fransman said the outgoing PEC managed to bring down slate politics which had left the party “broken” in the province.

Using the conference as an example, Fransman said this time around no doors were thrown down nor threats made.

He proposed the province’s contribution to the national ANC body would be to give guidance on how to tackle factionalism.

Provincial justice head Hishaam Mohamed went head-to-head with Maurencia Gillion for the post of party treasurer.

Mohamed initially accepted the nomination but ended up withdrawing citing gender representation among other reasons.

However, his withdrawal was not accepted by the conference and he was obliged to stand against Gillion.

While reporters waited anxiously for word on the outcome of the voting processes, both voting and non-voting delegates said the main fight would be the battle for provincial secretary.

Word had spread about a fall-out between Mjongile and Fransman mere hours before the conference kicked off on Saturday.

Three strong caucuses have emerged as contenders to take over the leadership of the province, those aligned to Fransman, those aligned to Mjongile and a splinter group, called Unity in Diversity (UID).

The UID emerged on the political landscape last year with a clear mandate to rid the province’s leadership of “power hungry elites, preoccupied with slate politics”.

It was widely expected that the UID was going to put forward a candidate to challenge Fransman, but insiders claimed several well-respected cadres refused.

In the end a confident Fransman secured his re-election without a fight with none of the big names punted prior to conference providing a challenge.

Fransman did not venture to speculate on who would be elected as part of the province’s top six members; instead he outlined how the ANC would start its fight to to win back the province. He focused on regaining strength in the province and taking back the ANC’s base in the rural areas while launching an even bigger offensive in the Cape Metro region to ensure that the party takes back control from its rivals.

Fransman said one of the key issues in winning back coloured support was for the province to tackle the issue of identity in the coloured community. “There are psychological scars in the Western Cape. We must deal with the mind issues, building resilience of the mind,” he said.

Fransman stressed that for the past four years the provincial leadership laid the foundation to mobilise the coloured masses but that more work needed to be done to win back the trust of the people. He warned that the ANC was losing voter support nationally.

“It’s as if the metros are starting to give us trouble. Take Tshwane, Port Elizabeth and Cape Town; that is a reality that the ANC has to confront,” he added.

Fransman said the ANC is going through an organisational renewal process nationally, moving from the strength of a value base that kept it for 103 years into a modernised environment with IT systems and call centres. “We want to create a body of volunteers who will be trained, tooled and who will execute their responsibilities for the party across the province.”

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