SA, forgive state capture like you ‘forgave apartheid’ – Dlamini

ANC Women’s League president Bathabile Dlamini says South Africans must practise forgiveness when it comes to state capture, in the same way they forgave apartheid.

Dlamini sat down with News24 Politiki on Sunday at the ANC’s national conference in Nasrec, to discuss among other things, the role of the league in the battle over final delegate credentials.

When asked about the lack of consequences for people who have been implicated in the #GuptaEmails, such as Carl Niehaus and Free State chairperson Ace Magashule, Dlamini said citizens were being hypocritical.

“South Africans, why are they not forgiving? They always want to label people. Why are they not saying, ‘let’s listen to Carl for a change and give him an opportunity to change’.”

JOHANNESBURG – The African National Congress (ANC) on Sunday adopted credentials, starting the process of electing a new party president.

The issue of credentials was contentious and even challenged in court, which led to significant delays at the Johannesburg gathering.

Three courts on Friday ruled against branches believed to be in favour of presidential hopeful Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma who faces stiff competition from Cyril Ramaphosa, who has an early edge, in what is believed to be a contest that is too close to call.

eNCA’s Gareth Edwards unpacks the implications of the court rulings, as reflected in the new credentials, in the video above.

eNCA

Johannesburg – The ANC’s 54th elective conference is expected to be delayed as the party’s national executive committee (NEC) holds an emergency meeting following court judgments against the KwaZulu-Natal, Free State and North West’s Bojanala regional conferences.

The NEC meeting was expected to have started at 08:00, while the ANC’s conference is scheduled to start at 09:00 at the Nasrec expo centre, south of Johannesburg.

The unprecedented court judgments have seen more than 100 delegates barred from voting at the conference. The race between presidential candidates Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa is so close that a few hundred votes could cost the candidates a win.

The three provinces were headed to courts to appeal the judgments, with the North West saying once it has lodged an appeal, affected delegates will attend the conference. But other leaders have said this risks the legitimacy of the conference.

Read more: ANC hold an emergency special NEC meeting

They have argued that affected delegates should be barred from attending the conference as their branch meetings were declared “unconstitutional” by the courts, but if they attend they should not be given voting powers at the conference. 

On Friday, allegations of manipulation of the registration process and buying of delegates to influence the outcome of the elections were rife. WhatsApp messages alleging that certain party leaders were changing names of delegates chosen by branches with those who supported their presidential candidate were also circulating. 

The allegations and court judgments are expected to be raised when credentials are supposed to be adopted. A long and heated battle that could derail the much anticipated conference is expected.

‘Cheat proof system’

ANC Deputy Secretary General Jessie Duarte said theirs was a “cheat proof system”.

“The process is quite thorough, it’s impossible for this process to be cheated because it starts with a branch mandated delegate registering as a branch mandated delegate,” said a tired Duarte after hours of assisting delegates from the different provinces across the country get their accreditation for the watershed conference.

“Provinces are allowed to make minimum changes in the case of injury of an individual, illness, death in the family, that sort of thing, for no other reason can a change be made. It doesn’t allow changes in fact,” she explained.

Duarte also said she and other officials helping delegates did not encounter serious issues.

“The issues we were anticipating, primarily issues such as they [the delegates] were in a branch general meeting, they were verified but they don’t appear on the list. Not many, such a small percentage that it is insignificant. But we are dealing with it anyway,” said Duarte on Friday.

By Saturday morning, there were still delegates from the Free State who claimed they were not registered yet, whilst those affected by the court judgment were accredited. One Free State delegate, aligned to the Ramaphosa campaign, said he hoped that the NEC will resolve the registration challenges to avoid a collapse of the conference during credentials.

The supporters of both Dlamini-Zuma and Ramaphosa are brimming with confidence and claim to have the numbers to win the race to replace Jacob Zuma.

ANC NEC member Mathole Motshekga told News24 that the court judgments had revealed that fraudulent conduct was only present in provinces behind Dlamini-Zuma.

“In all the provinces that support the deputy president, there is no evidence of fraudulent conduct, which means that he is backed by people committed to a clean organisation and clean government of the future.”

‘Victory is certain’

He said the court judgments had vindicated Ramaphosa’s supporters who have always had the suspicion that “people will try and steal the conference”, starting at branch level.

He said the judgments were a blessing in disguise because they would help the ANC identify the rot within the organisation and rebuild from an informed position.

A fight is expected in the NEC meeting, with ANC Youth League president Collen Maine, a Dlamini-Zuma supporter, saying that the judiciary had become “very political”.

“The judges are working with some among in the ANC to determine the outcome of conference. We remain unshaken, victory is certain, agents of white monopoly capital will not lead.

“Nobody is going to lead us through the courts,” Maine said.

“If the judges want to lead the ANC and to participate, they must tell us and we will allow them a delegation so they participate in the congress and not use the courts to hold us to ransom,” he said. 

Visit our special report, #ANCVotes, for all the news, analysis and opinions about the ANC’s national elective conference.

Johannesburg – President Jacob Zuma has announced that government will subsidise free higher education for poor and working class students.

He said in a statement on Saturday that the definition of poor and working class students will now refer to “currently enrolled TVET Colleges or university students from South African households with a combined annual income of up to R350 000” by the 2018 academic year.

“Having amended the definition of poor and working class students, government will now introduce fully subsidised free higher education and training for poor and working class South African undergraduate students, starting in 2018 with students in their first year of study at our public universities,” Zuma said.

“Students categorised as poor and working class, under the new definition, will be funded and supported through government grants not loans.”

This effectively means that Zuma has overruled the recommendations of the Heher Commission into the Feasibility of Fee-Free Higher Education and Training.

Zuma’s announcement comes on the day the ANC’s watershed 54th elective conference is expected to begin. A new leader of the party will be elected in the conference.

The Heher Commission had previously found that there is currently no capacity for the state to provide free tertiary education to all students.

The report recommended that undergraduate and postgraduate students studying at both public and private universities and colleges, regardless of their family background, should be funded through a cost-sharing model of government guaranteed “Income-Contingency Loans”, sourced from commercial banks.

The commission recommended that, through the model, commercial banks would issue government guaranteed loans to students.

More to follow.