ALSO READ: Free State ANC IPC fails to hold conference yet again

It's understood that the elective conference was set for this weekend - 3 and 4 December 2022. The failure of the IPC to hold its planned conference comes ahead of the ANC's 55th national conference. 

The Free State ANC has also recently become litigious with irate members dragging it to court over various issues, including the failure to hold conferences. According to the IPC spokesperson, Oupa Khoabane, "the Free State ANC provincial conference cannot be held this weekend until further notice".

The party was set to hold a conference in May/July but it failed. It then postponed it to September and again it failed to have a conference. Later it was pushed further into October and again, for the third time, it announced that it failed to prepare and organise the conference.

The party has been riddled with factions and has been unable to carry out the mandate of the province at a provincial conference. In October, Khoabane said many Branch Conferences did not qualify, after verification by Head Office and, as a result, will have to be rerun.

It’s understood that, in case the IPC’s term of office has lapsed, it will not be allowed to take part or vote in the upcoming National Conference but would be offered an observer status. However, if the party’s higher structure National Executive Committee (NEC) was to appoint a structure, perhaps called an Interim Task Team (ITT) before the conference, the ITT structure would then be given a right to vote and participate fully in terms of the ANC constitution, as included in Rule 10 and 12.

OFM News previously reported that at least 7 ANC wards in the Bloemfontein-based Mangaung Metro Municipality in the Free State were flagged by the national ANC General Manager (GM), Febe Potgieter, following complaints of alleged fraud.

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.

ALSO READ: ANC sends team to investigate alleged branch fraud 

On Friday, 25 November 2022 four disgruntled ANC members in Mangaung took the region’s Interim Regional Committee (IRC) to court over the alleged fraud at branches.

ALSO READ: Court bid launched against planned regional conference

But 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.

ALSO READ: Court dismisses application to halt Mangaung ANC conference

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).

The two factions in the metro have since gone on to hold a parallel conference which many continue to argue further deepens factions in the metro.

OFM News