Africa-Press – South-Africa. The ANC Women’s League (ANCWL) disbanded its recently-elected KwaZulu-Natal structure amid a dispute from a rival camp.
The provincial structure said it was yet to receive any communication about its supposed disbandment.
In the elective conference held a fortnight ago in Durban, Nonhlanhla Khoza emerged victorious over Bongiwe Sithole-Moloi for the position of chairperson.
Sources close to Sithole-Moloi previously complained of “chaotic” scenes – which, they said, were prompted by the provincial ANC’s attempts to parachute into positions contestants from the Harry Gwala District Municipality.
Khoza hails from this district.
Sithole-Moloi’s camp even mulled taking the matter to court, citing alleged irregularities in the counting of ballots.
The chairperson of the ANC in KZN, Siboniso Duma, recently paraded Khoza and her camp during a breakfast session with the media.
The elective conference became a focal point in the eThekwini metro council, where the ANC was probed by opposition councillors on whether the ANCWL had left the bill for the conference at the metro’s door, to be picked up by the taxpayer.
Over the weekend, the national structure of the ANCWL convened a special meeting – and it was decided to disband the provincial structure.
The deputy secretary-general of the ANCWL, Dina Pule, on Monday confirmed the disbandment of the provincial women’s structure.
In a statement, she said:
The spokesperson for the ANCWL in KZN, Sibongile Khathi, told News24 they were aware of a letter, which was authored by the secretary-general of the national ANCWL, Nokuthula Nqala. It had done the rounds on social media at the weekend.
However, the provincial structure had not yet received the letter.
Kathi said they had appealed the decision – and, as such, they “remain” an elected provincial structure.
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She said the narrative that the conference was “chaotic” was false, despite pictures showing women sleeping on a hotel lobby’s floor.
“As a structure, there is nothing that has come before us that speaks of disbandment or the conference being nullified, or whatever they call it. Procedurally, if you have appealed a decision, you remain in office until such time that the appeal is heard. As things stand, we believe we’re still a legitimate structure.”
Khoza’s office referred queries to the national ANCWL, and her spokesperson, Mhlaba Memela, had network issues.
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