Gangster State

verifying how many paid-up and legitimate members each branch had.
This was a vital process. Once the National Audit Team confirmed that
a branch had been ‘constitutionally launched’, that branch could send
its paid-up and verified members to the provincial conference.^21 The
Regime Changers claimed that their branches had not been given the
opportunity to ‘query the audit findings, in breach of the audit
guidelines’, according to court papers they later filed.
Despite these grievances, the provincial conference went ahead on 22
June. Besani, Dukwana and other branch members affected by the
alleged irregularities did not attend. Unsurprisingly, the Magashule
bloc emerged victorious. Magashule was re-elected provincial
chairperson, while his allies filled nearly all the other top PEC
positions. The dubiously constituted conference then turned into a pro-
Zuma festival. In defiance of an NEC resolution prohibiting party
members from endorsing candidates for the upcoming national
conference until the nomination processes opened in October,
Magashule openly announced his support for Zuma. In fact, the
conference could easily have been mistaken for a Zuma campaign
gathering. Delegates carried placards warning ‘Hands-off our President
Jacob Msholozi Zuma’,^22 and the stage was decorated with large
posters bearing the president’s face.^23
When Magashule was later asked to comment on the complaints of
his opponents in the province, he pleaded innocence. ‘The audit of
branches is the terrain of the national office through the ANC secretary
general [Mantashe]. Ditto the provincial conference is also the terrain
of national [leadership],’ he told the Mail & Guardian.^24 But the
validity of these audits would soon come under fire. In late August,
with the Mangaung conference drawing near, Mpho Ramakatsa, a