Two wards in the Thabo Mofutsanyane Municipality in the province were also flagged. 

In a letter addressed to the provincial upper structures of the party in different provinces, including the Free State ANC’s General Manager (GM), she said there were complaints about QR codes with scanners which were used to scan Identity Documents (ID), and a failure to receive QR codes. 

The party then took a decision to send investigators to the province and investigate the alleged transgressions. This came days before various regions, including Mangaung and Lejweleputswa, held their 7th and 8th regional conferences this past weekend.  

“On Sunday, 6 November 2022, headquarters received many complaints about the QR codes from the Free State, Mangaung/Motheo in particular, in the main of scanners not receiving QR codes whilst they have been sent to the province and region, or requests for change of venues or scanners,” Potgieter added.

OFM News previously reported that four disgruntled ANC members in Mangaung took the region’s Interim Regional Committee (IRC) to court over the alleged fraud at branches.

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But on Friday Judge Suzan Boozaaier of the Free State High Court dismissed an urgent application with costs. However, in her judgment, she reserved the reason why the application was rejected with costs for later.

The group argued that 23 branches in Mangaung had issued disputes with the ANC's provincial dispute resolution committee. Still, only three of them were called by the party's upper structure - the Interim Provincial Committee (IPC).

One of the aggrieved ANC members, Fannie Lelimo, told OFM News that since the dispute resolution committee handed over the complaints to the IPC, the structure has yet to furnish the aggrieved branches with responses.

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The group also held its parallel conference at Bon Hotel in Bloemfontein where the former Mangaung member of the Mayoral Committee (MMC) and current councillor in the metro, Patrick Monyakoane, was elected as the chairperson of the region in that conference.

ANC in Mangaung has been plagued by political infighting, with a clique of individuals aligning themselves to the Radical Economic Transformation (RET) programme of action of the African National Congress (ANC), and a clique of individuals aligning themselves to President Cyril Ramaphosa's slogan of good governance, called Thuma Mina, having a go at each other.

In January 2022, the then interim structure’s coordinator announced during a media briefing that the metro's speaker, Stefani Lockman, was immediately suspended after she allegedly defied the order of the party not to allow a sitting which saw the former Acting City Manager (ACM), Sello More, removed from his office.

Pitso also mentioned during a media briefing held at Vodacom Park in Bloemfontein, that Monyakoane should be removed from the Independent Electoral Committee (IEC) list.

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The IRC has since charged Lockman-Naidoo in disciplinary proceedings but failed its attempt to have her removed as speaker of the metro.

OFM News