- By that June, there were 121 074 members, which means the
party somehow recruited almost 45 000 new Free State members in
just six months.^37
The Constitutional Court decided that either the NEC or the national
conference needed to fix the dual problems of the discredited Free State
provincial conference and the disbanded PEC.^38 During an NEC
meeting on the sidelines at Mangaung, the ANC’s national leadership
appointed a task team of twenty people to organise a fresh provincial
conference. But it appeared as if the deck was stacked against the
Regime Change faction. The task team included Magashule, social
development MEC Sisi Ntombela and a bunch of other party figures
aligned to Magashule’s camp. Besani was one of the few task-team
members who stood outside the fold. From Ramakatsa’s viewpoint, the
national leadership had put in charge the very people who were behind
the irregularities criticised by the Constitutional Court. Ramakatsa
contended that he and his fellow applicants were not consulted when
the task team was formed.^39
The follow-up Free State conference was held at Phakisa Freeway, the
motor-racing circuit in Welkom, over a weekend in May 2013.
Ramakatsa and the Regime Change group again boycotted the event.^40
They were adamant that the same ‘mistakes and irregularities’ that
caused the Constitutional Court to declare the previous year’s
conference in Parys unlawful had preceded the latest gathering.^41 With
no Regime Change challengers present to spoil the party, Magashule
again became chairperson, while some of his closest allies were elected
unopposed to top spots on the PEC. Mosebenzi Zwane, who still
enjoyed relative obscurity, became the ANC’s Free State treasurer.^42
Then deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa, who had popped in to
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