Conference is the highest decision-making body.
ANC PTT co-ordinator Lindiwe Ntshalintshali has defended murder-accused Mandla Msibi’s availability to contest the post of provincial treasurer at the party’s 13th congress, saying branches should be allowed to have a say.
Ntshalintshali said the step-aside rule doesn’t necessarily stop members from contesting in elective conferences.
“The rule says once that member has stepped aside, the office of the secretary-general and provincial secretary will regulate the participation of that member in the ANC,” Ntshalintshali told journalists at the Witbank Civic Hall Thursday 31 March 2022.
She said branches must be allowed to have a say as the elective congress is the highest making body.
Msibi was asked to step-aside by the ANC after being arrested and charged with the murders of Dingane Ngwenya and Sipho Lubisi who were shot dead outside the Cayotes Shisanyama in Mbombela on 22 August 2021.
Premier Refilwe Mtshweni-Tsipane also sacked him from her government where he served as agriculture MEC.
ALSO SEE: Mandla Msibi to stand trial in September 2022
“Until you are finally charged and expelled from the ANC, you are still a member,” Ntshalintshali told journalists.
“But your participation will be regulated in the ANC, whether don’t come to meetings or don’t do this and that – but then let’s allow branches of the ANC because the conference is the highest decision-making body,” she said.
Ntshalintshali and NEC member Dakota Legoete addressed the media about the party’s readiness to hold an elective congress over the weekend.
They said the conference will go ahead despite a court application filed by two disgruntled members to stop the congress from sitting.
The members argue that the current PTT is an illegitimate structure as it was put in place by the NWC – a subcommittee of the NEC which they say doesn’t have the powers to dissolve a PEC.
But Legoete disagreed. “Members who say the NWC doesn’t have the authority are making a terrible mistake because the NWC is a structure that is responsible for the day-to-day running of ANC in-between NEC meetings The NWC is responsible for the day to day running of the ANC,” he said.
(edited by MLM)
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