Cape Town - Six of the ANC’s 12 members of the provincial legislature (MPLs) were on Sunday night elected to the party’s Provincial Executive Committee (PEC) to replace the PEC that was disbanded in 2019.
The PEC is the ANC’s executive organ of the provincial branch.
Of the six, deputy chief whip Khalid Sayed garnered the most votes, coming top of the list with 302.
He was followed by colleagues Health spokesperson Rachel Windvogel and Finance spokesperson Nomi Nkondlo, and leader of the opposition Cameron Dugmore with 285 282 and 270 votes, respectively.
The other two MPLs on the list were social development spokesperson Gladys Bakubaku-Vos with 227 votes and the legislature’s Scopa chairperson, Lulama Mvimbi, with 203 votes.
Even before the ANC’s Western Cape Provincial Executive Committee was elected on Sunday night, it had already been tasked with its first order of business by the party’s newly elected chairperson, Vuyiso Tyhalisisu.
In his speech to the conference, Tyhalisisu said: “We must now, with speed and urgency, convene the regional conferences of Dullah Omar and Victor Molosi. These two conferences must take place on or before the end of July this year.”
Tyhalisisu also committed to rotating all PEC meetings through all six regions of the province in a bid to rouse members before next year’s general election.
“This will be done for the purposes of connecting with our branches and broader communities. The PEC will be required to do political work in regions, and fellow travellers will not be tolerated,” he said.
Touching on the issue of racial divisions which have plagued the party in the province, President Cyril Ramaphosa told the PEC to emulate the United Democratic Front (UDF).
Ramaphosa said: “We need to recover the ground that we have lost in recent elections.
“We need to outline a clear path to achieving a majority in the legislature, in the Cape Town metro and in other municipalities. The UDF was a powerful mass-based movement that mobilised at grassroots level against apartheid. We should draw lessons of how our people in formations were united in the UDF.”
At the start of the conference, ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula said: “Here in the Western Cape it is key for the incoming PEC to drive the non-racialism agenda meant to address the national question within our movement.”