Johannesburg - Generational mix and women are the biggest winners who made it to the ANC’s National Executive Committee (NEC), at the wrap of the party’s 55th national elective conference.
A new 80-member NEC was announced yesterday in Nasrec, south of Johannesburg.
Among those who made it to the list are former Ekurhuleni mayor Mzwandile Masina and former ANCYL deputy president Andile Lungisa.
In July this year, the treasurer of ANC, Paul Mashatile, on behalf of the SGO’s office (secretary-general’s office) released a rules and nomination of NEC members memo, outlining guidelines to be adhered to, urged for branches to consider gender parity and generational mix.
Lungisa, 43, received more votes than ANC chief whip Pemmy Majodina and Minister in the Presidency Mondli Gungubele.
Some people were heard saying that Lungisa was the biggest winner after he was suspended by the Provincial Executive Committee (PEC) of the Eastern Cape; this is evident that branches wanted him back.
Lungisa, originally from Tsolo in the Eastern Cape, is also the former chairperson of the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) of South Africa, as well as the former president of the Pan African Youth Union (PYU) and ANC councillor at the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro Municipality in Port Elizabeth.
In April 2018, Lungisa was found guilty of assault with the intent to cause grievous bodily harm for hitting DA councillor Rano Kayser over the head with a glass water jug during a heated council meeting in 2016.
The incident was caught on camera, and Lungisa was sentenced to three years in prison.
He said he acted in self-defence, but Judge Morne Cannon, of the Port Elizabeth Magistrate’s Court, said Lungisa changed his versions throughout the trial and his evidence couldn’t be trusted.
Masina, 48, is currently the ANC’s Ekurhuleni chairperson; he was elected in 2014 and re-elected this year.
He has had his fair share of controversies, the latest being during the ANC conference in Gauteng, where he announced to the media that he had been suspended, but he was still standing.
He was blamed for the DA-led coalition government's decision to retain Ekurhuleni after mayor Tania Campbell was removed two months ago via a vote of no confidence.
Masina, at the 55th national elective conference, was gunning for the position of treasurer general, but in the last hour, he announced that he was backing out. The position went to Gwen Ramokgopa.