Votes for Modise, Phumzile not enough to make top six

Being nominated by an ANC league is equal to being nominated by one branch.

This explains why despite topping the list of ANC leagues, the names of Thandi Modise from the Women’s League and former deputy president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka did not make the final top six list ahead of the party’s conference in a few weeks.

Modise was nominated by the ANC Women’s League for deputy president while Mlambo-Ngcuka also secured an endorsement from the ANC Veterans League to reprise her role as the second- in-command.

However, due to the league’s interim status, instead of their endorsements holding weight, their nominations are the equivalent to that of one branch.

Meanwhile, the ANC Youth League nominated former health minister Zweli Mkhize, who managed to secure a spot on the ballot paper ahead of the conference. Mkhize will face incumbent president Cyril Ramaphosa, who is leading in nominations from branches.

Speaking at a media briefing where he announced the top six candidates, ANC elections committee head, former president Kgalema Motlanthe, said the easy way in which the leagues nominated disadvantaged their nominees in the sense that they did not have votes from branches.

“You have a situation where the leagues are led by task teams [and] we’ve had to go through the same process the ANC structures went through. They would’ve had to convene quorating branch general meetings to do two things, the nominations as well as election of delegates to conference.

“Given the status of the leagues now, they didn’t go through that process and, ordinarily, it would’ve meant the national position which is consolidated would then be treated or given the same weight of a province.

“They simply convened extended national meetings of the task teams and did the nominations from that position.  Whereas it’s accepted as a nomination as it (the leagues] has the status of a province – that’s one nomination in the absence of the nominations that would’ve come from branches, which would’ve added to the tally of votes for that preferred name or nominated name.

“In this instance, if you’re nominated by the YL (Youth League), your name goes in but you’re minus the votes that would’ve emanated from the branches,” Motlanthe said.

According to the ANC’s constitution, to qualify to be on a ballot paper for a position of officials, successful nominees must be nominated by at least one province, which means that qualifying candidates must have received the highest number of nominations in any particular province.

During the 55th national conference to be held in Nasrec, a total of 3,543 out of a grand total of 3,982 branches in good standing have held successful BGMs (branch general meetings). 

Effectively, this means that 89% of the ANC branches have successfully participated in the nomination process, thus comfortably surpassing the 70% threshold required for the national conference to take place.