ELECTIVE CONFERENCE
ANTHONY BUTLER: Fears linger over ANC poll postponement
If the conference is postponed or deadlocked, there will be devastating economic and sociopolitical consequences
How likely is it that the ANC’s December elective conference will be postponed? Or could it simply collapse under the weight of legal, political, or logistical difficulties? One expert survey by a leading bank placed the chances of postponement at an alarming one in three. There are fears that an avalanche of legal challenges — concerning membership counts, branch audits, and delegate selection processes — will be added to existing disputes about provincial leadership elections in KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape. Such legal cases are based on claims that officials had disregarded, or inconsistently applied, the ANC’s own rules and processes. The judiciary faces a stern test if it is to avert the economic and political catastrophe that a legal stalemate would bring. Fortunately, most judges recognise that contestation and confusion are inevitable in the internal party politics of any middle-income democracy. They may also be impressed by the systems that have been put in place by ...
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