ANC HAS BEGUN TO REGISTER ITS CANDIDATES
The African National Congress (ANC) is in the process of registering all its candidates - beginning today.
Most ANC candidates on various lists are products of nominations being carried out at Branch General Meetings (BGMs) and thereafter having been subjected to community meetings where candidates were scrutinised and questioned by members of the public.
The National List Committee (NLC) of the ANC exercised its prerogative to ensure that gender parity, representativity as well as continuity was adhered to, for all provinces to deliver a gender balanced list.
In a number of provinces, the NLC intervened to ensure that candidates who resided in a particular ward were selected, ensuring demographic representativity.
The overall percentage of an average of 40% continuity was - to a large extent - achieved. The ANC has been able to put together a list of candidates for every ward and every available Proportional Representative (PR) seat. In terms of registration, Mpumalanga, Northern Cape, Gauteng and Limpopo registered candidates today.
KwaZulu-Natal will register five ANC regions today and six regions tomorrow. The reason for the split is administrative. Free State will register candidates today with the exception Lejweleputswa, where there are some branches, which will go back to the community for a final consultation. North West will register candidates on Wednesday. The Eastern Cape will register candidates today, with the exception of the Oliver Tambo region, which will commence registration tomorrow.
The are two pending court actions lodged by people who did not make it on the list, interdicting the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) from continuing with registration of ANC candidates. In this regard, we are defending the court actions and will also institute ANC internal disciplinary action after completion of the registration process. The court action results will be known by today. Regions affected are Alfred Nzo and Buffalo City.
The ANC reiterates its position that all matters concerning the organisation should be resolved internally. We take a dim view of individuals who insist on taking the ANC to court, citing process matters. Our decision to test the popularity of candidates at community meetings stems from a national conference resolution.
We expect all ANC members to respect the resolutions of the organisation.
In the Western Cape - whilst registration is commencing - we are witnessing some degree of dispute around the Dullah Omar region.
We appeal to all cadres of our movement in the Western Cape to accept decisions taken to ensure that the principles and policies of our organisation are adhered to.
Statement issued by Gwede Mantashe, ANC Secretary General, March 22 2011
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