A fierce battle for the leadership of the African National Congress of the Free State (ANC) is expected this weekend, with six contenders vying for the leadership position.
The Free State ANC Interim Provincial Committee (IPC) is pushing for a weekend provincial conference. Despite political tension and unresolved branch disputes, disgruntled party members are threatening to disrupt the conference.
Free Public Education MEC Pule Makgoe, who is one of the leadership contenders, says he is aware of the concerns of branch members.
The ANC Free State says it’s all systems go for its provincial conference:
There are also claims that there were people who got the meeting for a quorum, but they weren’t there. So they would use a QR code to scan people’s barcodes, but that meeting didn’t actually happen.
There are also cases when we are informed that two conferences took place in the same department. Therefore, we need to resolve these issues before you can properly conference.
The ANC in the province is expected to hold its provincial conference this weekend. Mangaung is one of the largest regions in the province and all eyes will be on the IPC as it tries to unite members in the region.
However, it looks like it will be a difficult experiment as two factions comprising supporters of former ANC deputy provincial chairperson Thabo Manyoni and supporters of provincial ANC IPC chief Mxalisi Dukwana appear to be locked in a power struggle.
