Ex-ANCYL leader faces political ruin

He will now need at least a quarter of the delegates at the region’s elective conference next weekend to save his political career.

Matiti was hoping to use the Buffalo City regional conference to revive his political career.

But his ambitions were dealt a heavy blow after he did not a receive a single nomination from any ANC branches in the region.

The region has been given an all clear to convene its conference with provincial ANC secretary Oscar Mabuyane announcing yesterday that all that is left is for the party’s provincial working committee (PWC) to sign on the dotted line.

“The PWC is sitting on Monday to look into the report submitted by the BCM region.

“All indications are that all is in order.

“I don’t see why their submission that they have met the constitutional requirements to hold the conference will be delayed any further,” said Mabuyane.

The Saturday Dispatch can today reveal 35 branches of the ANC have held successful conferences. None nominated a Matiti-led line up.

This will be a surprise to many as Matiti has been a thorn in the flesh of both regional and provincial leadership. He was one of the organisers of a march to the party’s regional offices, attended by thousands of ANC supporters in August.

With Matiti in front, the marchers demanded that the leadership must table the findings of a probe into membership irregularities before any conference is convened.

The Matiti-led youth league was disbanded in November 2013, following the league’s National Task Team (NTT) decision that the structure was non-functional.

Since then, Matiti has not been elected into any ANC structure.

His return to power as either BCM regional chairman or secretary would have been a major boost for his political career, considering that his former allies in the league such as Mabuyane, ANC spokesman Mlibo Qoboshiyane and Julius Malema are now occupying senior political positions.

With just a week before the conference, Xola Pakathi is emerging as a strong contender for the regional chairmanship. Suspended regional secretary Phumlani Mkolo, has also been nominated and is likely to retain his position.

But Matiti, who was was wanted by his supporters as either regional chairman or secretary, said yesterday his opponents had stolen “his branches. When this process started I had 22 branches. Pumlani had 17 and Faku had nine,” said the former firebrand youth league leader.

“But when you check – Mkolo has 31. These branches were taken from us and no conference is going to sit until we get full reports on this fraud,” Matiti said.

He was referring to the FNB ANC membership backdating scandal in which a Mdantsane branch official has already been dismissed for the involvement in the fraud.

The fraud enabled new ANC members who would not have qualified to take part in a branch general meeting or be elected into office, to qualify to do both or either.

ANC records show that even Matiti’s very own branch in ward 17, in Mdantsane’s NU3 and parts of NU9, nominated Mkolo. But Matiti has disputed the outcome.

The branch held its general meeting last Sunday, but Matiti claims the venue was changed from Eluxolweni Hall to the rent office “where only 15 people came”. This was despite the REC deploying Saluka Keke to facilitate the meeting.

“We are going to challenge any-one who claims my branch held a BGM last Sunday. Here you are dealing with criminals who are willing to do anything to win a conference,” he added.

Mabuyane said all disputes would be resolved and also reassured ANC members in the region that members who were implicated in the FNB scam had been excluded from this conference. “Otherwise auditing of the remaining BGMs will continue and a report will be tabled to the PWC on Monday for the committee to give its stamp of approval for the conference to go ahead.”

Mkolo refused to comment on the developments. “I don’t have anything to say about conference preparation I have not been part of.”