The ANC should consider doing away with the process of opening nominations from the floor of conferences as this undermines branch mandates.
This is according to Andrew Baloyi, who was speaking to TimesLIVE Premium ahead of the ANC Ekurhuleni regional conference in July where he will be contesting the positions of regional deputy chairperson or treasurer.
Baloyi said as the ANC regions go to their respective conferences, there should be a debate about amending the constitution and conference laws to get rid of the practice of nominations from the floor.
He believes nominations should be closed at the branch level.
Baloyi argued that delegates to conferences get their mandates from their branches and allowing them to nominate other people inside the plenary should be declared illegal as it poses a risk of delegates being paid to undermine branch mandates.
“It’s a loophole in the nomination process that the ANC needs to have a serious discussion about and do away with people being raised from the floor. This one of the reason people get aggrieved and end up leaving the party,” said Baloyi.
“It’s because money plays a role. Because what motivates delegates to change the name of someone who was nominated in branches? It’s money.”
The current ANC treasurer-general Gwen Ramokgopa and second deputy secretary-general Maropene Ramokgopa were nominated from the floor at the 2022 Nasrec conference and went on to clinch the positions.
Baloyi is effectively calling for the ANC’s constitution to be amended, something that only the national conference, which sits in 2027, can process. But he believed the regional conferences currently under way should start having the debate.
So far two regions in Limpopo — Peter Mokaba and Vhembe — have had their conferences with the Gauteng regions expected to sit in July.
Baloyi made an example of the confusion that was caused by the Limpopo PEC at the ANC Nasrec conference 2022 where after branches had nominated Ramaphosa in their branch and provincial general meetings, the PEC tried to sway delegates to vote for his contender Zweli Mkhize just hours before voting.
“So the branches of Limpopo mandated their delegates to national conference and the leadership of Limpopo to support the president, when they get to the conference they change their tune, which caused confusion.
“In such instances, branches must convene quickly and remove the leadership because they’ve betrayed the mandate of the branches.”
Baloyi is being lobbied to contest for the deputy regional chairperson as well as regional treasurer. Some quarters of Ekurhuleni have also hinted at nominating him for the coveted regional chair position.
In 2023 Baloyi was temporarily suspended from the ANC for questioning on Facebook the party’s Gauteng provincial executive committee's close relationship with the EFF, going as far as accusing them of a plot to remove President Cyril Ramaphosa.
The party’s provincial disciplinary committee sanctioned him to attend the OR Tambo School of Leadership.
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