Saul wins ANC NC election
Colesberg - In a dramatic twist to the ANC Northern Cape elective conference, Premier Sylvia Lucas declined nomination for the provincial chair position.
Zamani Saul who was the secretary was elected chair of the province uncontested, with his entire slate branded #Zamdesh doing a clean sweep at the polls.
The new top five of the Northern Cape are:
Zamani Saul chairperson
Bentley Vaas deputy chair
Deshi Ngxanga secretary
Maruping Lekwene deputy secretary
Fufe Makotong – Treasurer
Lucas was missing in the hall when the nomination process started. The elections agency representative called her name out several times to accept or decline nomination. She returned to the marquee to find that her whole slate had declined nomination and followed suit.
She said contesting would have been an "exercise in futility following allegations of discrepancies in the nomination process leading to the conference".
“I believe the discrepancies mentioned in the acceptance of the credentials made it an exercise in futility to contest,” Lucas said.
However she is not giving up the fight. She has vowed to approach the party’s National Executive Committee to review the election process.
Breaking news Premier Sylvia Lucas declines nomination of chai, Zamani Saul is new chair @News24 pic.twitter.com/NgC5xWRcbu— mahlatse gallens (@hlatseentle) May 12, 2017
“The next step will definitely be to request the NEC to review the whole process leading to the conference. There are a lot of things not corrected, we were hitting a brick wall,” Lucas said.
Saul said it was an individual right to decline nomination and said Lucas was within her right to take the matter to the NEC.
Earlier some of her backers objected to the adoption of the conference credentials that determine if legitimate delegates are attending the conference and if the number of delegates from branches were correct.
Following a protracted debate, the credentials were eventually accepted.
On Tuesday, some branch members from the province marched to Luthuli house to demand that President Jacob Zuma intervene. They wanted the conference to again be postponed claiming that Secretary General Gwede Mantashe adopted the branch audits despite cloning of membership, gate keeping and manipulation of the audit.
Saul downplayed the divisions ahead of the conference after his election.
“There is organic unity, we agree on the programme of the ANC, we agree on ideological orientation of the movement, people will always differ on who is the best driver,” Saul said.
On the eve of the conference, Lucas angered the ANC for reshuffling her provincial cabinet. The party nationally rebuked her move, labelling it a betrayal of trust.
