ANC branches are racing against time to nominate candidates to stand as ward and proportional representative councillors in the October 27 municipal elections.
ANC electoral committee chair Kgalema Motlanthe has given party members until the end of May to nominate who they want representing them in the upcoming polls.
This means ANC members in the Eastern Cape, who are also preparing for regional elective conferences, will have a busier May as Luthuli House hopes to wrap up the whole process by mid-August with the final list of candidates submitted to the IEC.
The nomination process is likely to be highly contested if previous years are anything to go by, when ANC members clashed and in some cases even assaulted one another over the right to be a councillor.
Previous nomination processes have been marred by allegations of candidates being imposed on communities, allegedly because of cronyism and ANC factional battles.
But in his letter to ANC provincial secretaries dated May 5, the former interim SA president set out processes to follow.
Motlanthe said by the end of May, ANC branches should have met and nominated candidates and held community meetings where ANC candidates would be presented to residents.
In June, PR candidates will be interviewed by yet-to-be-established regional interview and vetting panels (RIVP), while the provincial list committee (PLC) should process all ward candidates.
By mid-July, provincial executive committees are expected to approve the ward and PR lists, which will then be taken to the ANC NEC to rubber-stamp at the beginning of August before the final lists are submitted to the IEC.
On the make-up of the PLC, Motlanthe said gender presentation was crucial.
“The PLC should be approved by the PEC and made up of three senior ANC members who no longer occupy elected positions in the NEC, PEC or REC with no direct personal interest in the outcome of the candidate selection process.
“At least two should be women,” he said, adding that the SACP, Cosatu, ANC Women’s League, ANC Youth League and Sanco could also nominate one committee member.
He said the PLC should be elected by Monday.
“The provincial secretaries will have to provide administrative support for the PLC, and must ensure that all organisational structures implement the processed and abide by the rules determined by the electoral committee.”
Several attempts to obtain comment from Eastern Cape ANC secretary Lulama Ngcukayitobi were unsuccessful on Friday.
HeraldLIVE