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ANC conference aborted amid chaos Lungani Zungu, Sunday Tribune, Durban, 3 May 2015 Unruly behaviour by delegates led to the suspension of the rerun of the ANC's sixth eThekwini conference on Saturday. Chaos erupted when a group of delegates - believed to be supporters of the region's former treasurer, Zandile Gumede - stormed the conference hall at Greyville Race Course chanting, "Senzeni na, Mchunu (What have we done, Mchunu)?" This occurred just as ANC provincial chairman and Premier Senzo Mchunu took to the podium to open the conference, three hours after the scheduled start. The disgruntled delegates accused Mchunu of conspiring against those who supported Zandile Gumede to hinder her chances of being elected. "Where is ward 37? We are not going to allow the conference to proceed without them," they insisted. They said the transport arranged from delegates had failed to collect those from Ward 37. The ward includes Newlands and KwaMashu, which are said to support Gumede. Supporters of mayor James Nxumalo supporters blocked gate 8 to the race course. Nxumalo and Gumede, contenders to lead the ANC's powerful region, were seen roaming around the race course during the heated confrontation between their supporters. Neither of them tried to restore calm. The conference came to an abrupt halt when Willies Mchunu and other provincial executive committee members failed in their attempts to quell the chaos. The ANC delegates, clad in party regalia, became the centre of attention as they traded insults. Battles lines were drawn between them. Willies Mchunu told the delegates: "Comrades, you are killing the organisation. What you are doing is totally wrong. Can you please behave yourselves." Ignoring his pleas, delegates continued banging on the tables and hurling insults at the provincial chairman, Senzo Mchunu. Sihle Zikalala, secretary of the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal, called a brief adjournment - which lasted for two hours as furious delegates were not willing to listen. The provincial executive committee later convened a special media briefing at which they announced the suspension of the conference. Sihle Zikalala said: "We took a decision to cancel today's sitting due to unruly behaviour by some of the delegates." It is not known when the conference will be reconvened. Nxumalo and Gumede declined to comment on the postponement. The conference has been postponed twice and nullified once. At the initial conference, Nxumalo defeated Gumede by 253 votes to 212 to lead the region. The conference was later nullified because it had included three wards that had not been properly audited. Sunday Tribune From: http://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/anc-conference-aborted-amid-chaos-1.18528 47#.VUWzG_mqqko -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
