I’m hoping this will be the last ANC National Elective Conference to be decided by a minority vote – the last where a minority of ANC members elect leaders for the majority, and where a small ANC minority nominate leaders for the entire population of South Africa.
Elections within the ANC have always been conducted by a minority, an elite on behalf of the entire membership in which the elite of delegates have been trusted to place the interests of their branches ahead of their personal interests. Sometimes the delegates have been chosen depending on whether they had their own resources to travel to the conference venues. This was the ANC in the 20th century, the ANC of Pixley ka Isaka Seme and Zacharias Richard Mahabane.
The banned, underground ANC led by Nelson Mandela and OR Tambo was forced to change the methods of electing delegates to the elective conferences. Fear of infiltration led to the introduction of scrutinising and thorough screening of would-be delegates to the elective conferences to minimise the chances for apartheid state machinery infiltration.
In exile, members of the National Executive Committee were mostly co-opted rather than elected. New appointees reflected the personal assessments and judgement…