THE ANC in the Northern Cape will be the first province to hold its conference in April next year ahead of its crucial national general council (NGC) months later and the 2027 national conference.
The national conference is likely to elect President Cyril Ramaphosa's replacement as party leader, but ANC Northern Cape provincial chairperson Dr Zamani Saul has shot down talk of lobbying by potential candidates before the 2026 local government elections.
Addressing the ANC Youth League’s provincial conference in Kuruman this week, Saul warned potential candidates not to campaign in the Northern Cape in a reckless manner and engage in premature leadership engagements.
According to Saul, structures in the province are not going to engage in adventurous debates on who should lead the ANC in 2027.
”We will wait for the national executive committee (NEC) to declare that lower structures can engage on this matter,” he told the ANCYL gathering, which elected the province’s finance, economic development and tourism MEC Venus Blennies-Magage as provincial chairperson and Phumla Mbobi as provincial secretary.
Saul said the Northern Cape structures were focused on rebuilding the ANC.
However, he briefly indicated that the province is hoping to succeed in its proposal for the party to have two deputy presidents at the 2027 national conference.
Saul said the second deputy president was needed to focus on international relations and the position was required especially taking into cognisance the significance of geopolitics.
The proposal dates back to the 2017 national conference and was tabled alongside the suggestion to have two deputy secretaries-general, which was initially rejected in 2017 but later accepted five years later in 2022.
The province had the smallest number of delegates to the 2022 national conference with 239.
ANC Northern Cape provincial secretary Deshi Ngxanga informed party’s regional structures last week that they must submit roadmaps to their conferences by this Saturday.
The three-day provincial conference will be held in April in the Frances Baard region, which includes Kimberley, Hartswater, Barkly West and Warrenton.
The term of the Northern Cape provincial executive committee ends in May next year.
The ANC NGC, which is the party midterm review following national conferences, is scheduled to be held in the middle of 2025.
Last month, the ANC warned its leaders not to publicly engage in leadership debate for the next conference as such actions destabilised the organisation’s structures and detract from the focused implementation of both its electoral mandate and national conference resolutions.
In addition, the ANC NEC resolved that a guiding framework on leadership issues and processes should be developed, circulated to all structures and discussed and once adopted it will guide leadership processes at branch, regional, provincial and national levels.
It warned that no member should engage in leadership contestation, lobbying or self-promotion in the name of the ANC for any position in the run-up to the 2027 national conference except within the period to be determined and announced by the secretary-general Fikile Mbalula.
”Any member violating this directive by engaging in unauthorised leadership contestation will face disciplinary action as such behaviour detracts from the critical work of implementing national conference resolutions and our electoral manifesto,” the party warned, adding that it refused to be drawn into premature leadership discussions diverting focus from addressing the strategic setback it suffered in the May 29 national and provincial elections.