ANC blames conference delays on quorums
Delays in the eThekwini regional conference have been blamed on difficulties in forming a quorum for general meetings.
|||Durban - The ANC in KwaZulu-Natal has blamed delays in convening the eThekwini regional conference on difficulties experienced in forming a quorum for general meetings.
The organisation made the claim when it announced that the provincial congress would be held in Pietermaritzburg on the weekend of November 7-8.
Speaking at a press conference in Durban, provincial secretary, Sihle Zikalala, said the eThekwini branches were continuing with holding general meetings.
“We can assure everyone that the branches in the region will soon complete the processes and hold the conference,” Zikalala said.
He, however, said the environment in which the general meetings were held was not characterised by hot contestation and disruptions as it had been the case in the past.
Zikalala also said the eThekwini branches that convened general meetings have now passed the half-way mark of the required quorum of 70%.
eThekwini needs to have at least 72 branches, out of the 103, to hold general meetings before a conference is convened. Currently, more than 36 have convened successfully.
Zikalala did not provide a conference date for eThekwini, except to say it would be held when 72 branches or more held successful meetings.
Deputy secretary, Nomusa Dube-Ncube, dismissed media reports that the conference scheduled for last weekend had been postponed.
“It is not true as we saw in headlines that ‘eThekwini conference postponed again’. Who said it was postponed?” Dube-Ncube asked.
Her comment was in stark contrast to a statement of the national executive committee which announced October 24-25 as the regional conference date, which was later confirmed to KZN journalists at the last provincial media briefing.
Explaining conference delays in eThekwini, Zikalala said the ANC KZN was reaping the fruits of a huge membership in eThekwini – the party’s biggest region.
“It is a positive (thing) to have branches with huge membership, but it gives a problem forming a quorum for constitutional meetings,” Zikalala said.
Zikalala said the branches had to adhere to a strict rule where members have to be in a meeting instead of signing attendance registers for a meeting to form a quorum and start.
But, in many meetings some members signed attendance registers and left before the meeting started – a move affecting the quorum.
There was also a problem of branches battling to reach a quorum in the suburbs – dominated by middle class people in particular the whites and Indians, Zikalala said.
Meanwhile, about 1 700 delegates were expected to attend the provincial conference.
Daily News
*E-mail your opinion to IOLletters@inl.co.za and we will consider it for publication or use our Facebook and Twitter pages to comment on our stories. See links below.