Tight security at 11th ANC Tshwane elective conference

ANC Tshwane leader Dr Kgosi Maepa. Picture: Jacques Naude/African News Agency (ANA)

ANC Tshwane leader Dr Kgosi Maepa. Picture: Jacques Naude/African News Agency (ANA)

Published Jun 3, 2022

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Pretoria - Security will be tight during the 11th ANC Tshwane elective conference at the Indaba Hotel in Fourways, Johannesburg north, this weekend.

Outgoing regional secretary Eugene “Bonzo” Modise, who is also contesting for the position of chairperson, said: “We want to give out a stern warning to anyone who may want to disrupt conference proceedings to think twice.”

Modise is expected to go head-to-head with the incumbent party chairperson, Dr Kgosi Maepa.

It was still unclear yesterday whether ANC council chief whip Aaron Maluleka had been persuaded by lobbyists who wanted him to contest Modise and Maepa.

Modise said critical risk and security assessments had been carried out at the venue with the SAPS.

“Sufficient security personnel will also be deployed throughout the duration of the conference. There will be access and security checkpoints in and out of cordoned-off areas meant for voting delegates only. No weapons are allowed on the registration and conference premises. Delegates will not be allowed to consume alcohol during plenary and breakaway sessions and voting,” he said.

According to Modise, the ANC in Tshwane was ready for the three-day conference to be held under the theme “Repositioning the ANC in Greater Tshwane to take over the City in 2026, through Renewal and Unity”.

He said: “This theme is our battle cry. Renewal and unity are the rallying points for a much stronger ANC in the region, moving forward with our sights set squarely on reclaiming lost ground and winning back the city to deliver services to our people and driving the transformation agenda.”

The conference will be attended by 300 voting delegates with at least 90% of them coming from ANC branches.

The other 10% of voting delegates would come from the ANC regional task team, including the party leagues.

Modise said that out of the 107 party branches, 98 were verified as branches in good standing by the National Executive Committee, according to the ANC constitution.

“Out of the nine remaining branches seven had membership of less than 100 members as at February 28, 2022. We have a presence in virtually all the wards of the city. We are the second biggest region in Gauteng in terms of membership, as at the last membership audit,” he said.

He explained that the threshold requirement to qualify to convene a regional conference “is set at 70% of all branches in the region, which is 75 branches”. “We have since surpassed the mark with 86 branches having successfully sat for their general meetings, according to the last verification report issued on May 12,” he said.

The conference was scheduled to be hosted last weekend but was postponed because of outstanding disputes emanating from nominations of delegates at the branch general meetings.

Modise said: “The regional dispute resolution committee has been hard at work to clear outstanding disputes. We can confirm that the committee at this very moment has processed the last of the outstanding disputes at this level.”

Pretoria News