Free State ANC to elect new leadership

Free State ANC members will get another chance to elect a new leadership next month, a provincial party official has confirmed.

ANC spokesperson in the province, Oupa Khoabane, said the provincial task team to oversee the elections met during this week and decided the provincial elective conference would be held on February 23.

The one-day conference for the election of the new provincial executive committee (PEC) would be held in Parys.

ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe announced the task team during a press briefing after a national executive committee meeting in Bloemfontein before the start of the Mangaung national elective conference last month.

There are 11 women and nine men on the team, which includes Free State ANC chairperson Ace Magashule – who represents the party’s NEC on the team.

It followed a successful court challenge by a group of six disgruntled Free State ANC members in the Constitutional Court on the legality of the provincial elective conference held in Parys in June last year.

The court held that last year’s Free State PEC election was unlawful.

Khoabane said the task team members would attend regional structures on Monday next week to explain to party members at branch level how the newly run elections would be conducted.

The two conveners of the task team are Free State social development MEC Sisi Ntombela and education MEC Tate Makgoe.

- Sapa