ANC welcomes back more than 30 former members in Free State

Reading Time: 2 minutes

The African National Congress (ANC) says it has welcomed back more than 30 former members in the Fezile Dadi District, in Free State, after defecting to the African Transformation Movement (ATM).

The ANC’s Fezile Dabi regional secretary Sello Peterson says the return of the members is seen as re-affirmation of unity in the party.

“They have recommitted themselves to work harder to make sure that the ANC emerges victorious in the upcoming provincial and national elections as part of ensuring that we deepened democracy. But critically we give the ANC the mandate to proceed with fighting for the rights of our own people and we are quite excited by that particular development.”

The move comes as the country is preparing for the national elections on May 29.

An unprecedented number of contestants will be vying for seats in the elections.

Close to 15 000 people have been nominated to contest a total of 887 seats in the National Assembly and all nine provincial legislatures.

Elections 2024 | Objections on published candidate lists close: Masego Sheburi

The race for the national and provincial polls will be congested due to the high number of political parties and independents, jostling for a place at the finishing line.

The spread of the candidates is as follows: 4 323 candidates have been nominated to contest the compensatory seats in the National Assembly which is only contested by political parties on a closed list basis.