Johannesburg - The ANC will from now onwards have a top seven, a shift away from the traditional top six which has been there for decades - even when the ANC was in exile.
The position of a second deputy secretary-general has added and a party member will be elected to occupy it.
This new position was first proposed in 2012 in Mangaung with the argument that the workload in the office of the secretary-general was heavy and three officials are needed to carry it out efficiently.
UPDATE: Pule Mabe says since there is a new position of second deputy secretary-general, the electoral commission will open the floor for delegates to nominate from floor. Thereafter there will be voting for the new top seven and all that is expected to happen tonight. @IOL
— Sihle Mavuso (@ZANewsFlash) December 17, 2022
It was never passed and the debate popped up again in 2017 at the Nasrec conference, when again, it was shelved.
However, the ANC is now introducing the position and it will be the case once the over 4500 delegates currently gathered at the Nasrec expo in Johannesburg ratifies the required constitutional amendment.
WATCH: ANC members in high spirits at Nasrec expo in Johannesburg ahead of nominations and voting for top six officials. pic.twitter.com/P0gZNw4UEW
— Sihle Mavuso (@ZANewsFlash) December 17, 2022
Pule Mabe, the outgoing ANC national spokesperson, said the proposal came out of the national policy conference a few months ago and now it would be implemented.
Mabe said this during a press conference on Saturday evening which was to give a way forward regarding the conference.
“Once credentials are adopted we will move to formalise and finalise on amendments.
“Some of the amendments impact on how the composition of national officials.
“You are all aware that coming to this national conference, out of the national conference, one of the issues that came up was the introduction of the second deputy secretary-general.
“We want finality on that so that if delegates agree on that,” he said.
Check out IOL’s rolling coverage of the 55th ANC National Conference here.
He then explained how the nominations for the new top seven would proceed.
“Once all of the positions that have qualified during the nomination processes, whose nomination process was guided by the electoral guidelines adopted by this outgoing national executive committee as elected by the 54th national conference of the ANC.
“Once all of those nominations are read out, and then concluded on amendments, if there are further names raised from the floor, those names would need to garner sufficient numbers to be included on the ballot paper.
“To be exact, they need to garner about 25 percent of the total voting delegation to be included on the ballot paper,” Mabe said.
Meanwhile, Mabe said the only voting that will happen on Saturday night will be voting for officials (the new top seven).
He said if a candidate does not make it into the top seven, she or he will be automatically moved to the additional (NEC) to contest for a position there.
He said the conference has now received all reports, which includes the organisation report, which was presented by outgoing deputy president, David Mabuza.
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