Durban - The contentious ANC step-aside resolution may not be the priority at the party’s national elective conference next month, but delegates from different provinces will ask why it was changed so drastically since the 2017 conference.
On Wednesday, the ANC’s acting secretary-general Paul Mashatile dismissed claims the step-aside resolution may be scrapped at the conference.
Mashatile said the rule would only be discussed after the election of the top-six and national executive committee members (NEC).
The rule forces those who face serious criminal charges to vacate their positions until after they have concluded the court process. It was amended to prevent them from contesting positions at any of the ANC conferences.
Provincial leaders of the party from KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng, Limpopo and Mpumalanga have called for the rule be amended, saying that it had been inconsistently applied.
Bheki Khanyile, spokesperson for the Josiah Gumede region, said the resolution taken at the elective conference in 2017 should never have been amended.
“If the feeling was that the resolution was not worded properly, then they should have waited for another conference to make the amendment.
“It is no longer a resolution that was taken at conference.
“If it was done the way the 2017 conference intended it, then no one would have had a problem,” said Khanyile.
He said the current implementation had been done in such a manner that it appeared to deliberately target certain people.
Zenzele Msomi, secretary of the Harry Gwala region, said the resolution had been applied inconsistently.
“Almost all provinces believe that the resolution must not fall under the national executive committee, but must be administered by the party’s integrity committee.
“You cannot be a referee and a player in the same ground, as the NEC is not immune to its application,” Msomi said.