Johannesburg - The ANC is proposing drastic changes to its constitution which would allow the party’s more than 691 000 members to vote for leaders at national, provincial and regional conferences.
This is among the amendments on the table ahead of the governing party’s five-day national conference scheduled for December.
ANC treasurer-general and acting secretary-general Paul Mashatile last month gave all party structures until this past Thursday, September 15, to comment on the proposed constitutional amendments.
In terms of the ANC constitution, any constitutional amendments require a two-thirds majority of voting delegates to present a national or special conference and this year the party’s national executive committee is obliged to give a month’s notice of the proposed changes no later than November 15.
The current practice ahead of national, provincial and regional conferences only allows delegates to represent branches with more than 100 members.
According to the ANC, the current leadership at a branch level is directly elected based on ‘one member, one vote’.
“So, the question has been raised, should consideration be given to introducing an internal electoral system through which ANC members can directly vote for leadership at regional, provincial and national levels?” the party asks.
It wants further discussion and engagement on the proposal, whose stated aim is to deepen internal democracy.
“Further research, bench-marking with other organisations or trends across the globe, discussion and engagement is needed,” the proposed amendment reads.
The ANC wants to be clear on how “one member, one vote” will affect its organisational character, the role of branches and the electoral committee.
"We should constantly improve our leadership election system and the electoral committee and the renewal commission should examine future options including whether members should vote directly in leadership contests,” the party explained.
The ANC currently has 691 381 members after conducting an audit. Political analyst Dr Levy Ndou told the Sunday Independent that the ANC’s proposal could work, but a lot would need to be done.
However, he was quick to add that the proposal appeared to be a desperate attempt to manage succession battles within the party.
According to Ndou, the ANC always has succession scars, which have previously been characterised by the formation of Cope after former president Thabo Mbeki was ousted by his eventual successor Jacob Zuma and the subsequent resignations of several cabinet ministers.
He said even the December 2017 Nasrec national conference at which President Cyril Ramaphosa was elected has scars such as the emergence of the radical economic transformation opposed to his leadership.
Ndou believes that the party’s previous national conferences meant that only a few thousand of its members could determine its leadership and subsequently that of the country.
Ndou added that delegates also carried the risk that they can go to conferences and vote for candidates different from those preferred by the branches they represent as voting is through a secret ballot.
He said ANC members could vote electronically but that such a system could experience serious challenges such as reliable internet access in rural areas.
"Such a system is vulnerable to abuse if it is complicated unless they do manual voting in branches like we do during general elections,” explained Ndou.
He continued: “Unfortunately if they opt for this option, they need money”.
The cash-strapped ANC has been struggling with paying its employees for a few years and faces lawsuits over unpaid debts amounting to millions of rands. As part of the proposed constitutional amendments, ANC Limpopo provincial secretary Reuben Madadzhe recently called for the top six to be beefed up to have another deputy secretary-general and ultimately be a top seven.
Other proposed amendments and resolutions include recruitment of members accompanied by effective induction, political education and the newbies’ involvement in local programmes advancing communities’ interests.
The ANC also wants compulsory induction at its branches for new members within the first six months of their joining. At its national policy conference in July, the legislature and governance commission proposed to the ANC that new members must be vetted to ensure that those with ulterior motives and criminal intent do not capture its structures.
In addition, the ANC has proposed that all its leaders and public representatives should be inducted within three months of election and commit themselves to ongoing development and political education.
"Passing the four prerequisite online modules offered by the OR Tambo School of Leadership must be a requirement for being elected as a leader above branch level and for standing as a public representative,” the draft resolution on leadership requirements and training stated.