Better late than never as ANC in Free State Province heads to a conference

The African National Congress in Free State is finally set to hold a provincial conference from the 20 – 22 January 2023, despite postponing it several times.

The Provincial Conference will be held at Imvelo Lodge, same venue that hosted one of the parallel Mangaung Regional Conference.

This comes hardly three weeks after the 55th National Conference that saw the incumbent Cyril Ramaphosa given a second term walloping the challenger Dr. Zweli Mkhize by over 500 votes.

While most provinces had pronounced their preferred leadership Free State was sitting on the fence as always and this became apparent when all they could do was to second motions instead of putting names forward. The province has one person in the National Executive Committee.

In simple terms Free State contribution in the bigger scheme of things of politics is as good as non-existent and worse, interventions by former president Thabo Mbeki, former deputy president Kgalema Motlhanthe, national chairperson Gwede Mantashe and the current president Cyril Ramaphosa yielded no result.

The current leadership that oversaw the municipality collapse is divided and tensions are at the highest point which signals that there will be purging as soon as the new leadership is elected regardless which faction will emerge.

On Friday, the National Working Committee recommended that the province be supported by the NEC’s broader structures to have a political management program to defuse the tension and create a conducive environment for unity and renewal.

This means the IPC has failed dismally and the NWC just confirmed what we have been saying all along that the useless IPC not only failed to provide leadership in the party but also in government and municipalities.

Look no further than Mangaung Metro and Dihlabeng Local Municipality.

There are currently 43 criminal cases under investigation by the Hawks across municipalities in Free State and not even a single municipality received a clean audit and its business as usual.

The decision to recall Mxolisi Siyonzana, Mangaung Metro Executive Mayor can not and should not be credited to the IPC but to Fikile Mbalula, newly elected Secretary General.

IPC failed to handle Siyonzana and had Mkhize won in Nasrec he would not be recalled.

Now we have the same people who were spectators while in positions of change and influence in the IPC suddenly raising their hands to be elected in the leadership positions and the PEC.

In other news, the much-anticipated meeting between SGO, IPC officials, and Mangaung ANC councilors will sit this morning at 10h30 at Indaba Auditorium with sources saying the councilors who allegedly voted with the opposition will be allowed to explain themselves.

It is alleged 8 councilors voted with the opposition and the ANC in Mangaung resolved to expel them.

The same thing happened in Maluti-A-Phofung where sixteen councilors were expelled for voting with the opposition and the ANC went with cap in hand begging them to come after they defeated ANC in the LGE.

While they are embroiled in factional battles potholes are getting bigger and better killing the same communities that voted for them.

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