LISTEN | Ace Magashule puts his disqualification in delegates' hands

Suspended ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule has put his hopes in delegates at the party's national conference to reverse a decision that bars him from standing for any position this weekend.

According to the ANC election committee rules, Magashule is disqualified from standing because he is suspended and has been charged for corruption.

But on Friday Magashule said delegates attending the conference will decide his fate.

“I am the ANC, I was born in the ANC and no one will expel me from the ANC,” Magashule said at Nasrec, the conference venue.

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He has been nominated by some branches in his home province, the Free State, despite having been suspended due to the charges he faces.

While the party's vetting process removed Magashule from contesting leadership positions and he missed the deadline for appealing his disqualification, he believes delegates can still save his political career.

“The branches are the highest decision-making body [in] the conference and I will respect the branches and their voice.

“This conference must go on and it must be a peaceful conference, but no-one must be stifled in raising issues and their views. Delegates must be allowed to talk and the leadership of the ANC must never try to suppress the voices of branches which is the basic unit of the ANC,” Magashule said.

He has been on suspension for more than a year.

Magashule also tried to defend his political ally, former president Jacob Zuma, who is accused of lobbying branches to disrupt the conference after saying delegates should not give President Cyril Ramaphosa and treasurer-general Paul Mashatile an opportunity to deliver political, organisational and financial reports.

“There is no attempt to collapse the conference, comrade Jacob Zuma is a branch delegate. You see how powerful comrade Zuma is? He is a member of a branch, he belongs to the ANC, he is going to talk and he has a right to talk as a member of the ANC.”

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