Factionalism in the ANC will not be tolerated — Mabuyane

Factionalism within the ANC’s provincial executive committee (PEC) will not be tolerated, Eastern Cape chair Oscar Mabuyane said.

  Addressing delegates at the extended PEC meeting in East London on Sunday, Mabuyane said delegates holding leadership positions around the province should be going corner to corner taking services to the people instead of using state resources, peddling division and sowing confusion within the ranks of the party.

“This comrades, I repeat, perceived or real, will not be tolerated. No unity will stop this PEC from isolating and dealing with individuals who are preoccupied with activities that are divisive and threaten the unity of the PEC and the organisation in the province,” Mabuyane said.

He said the high levels of poverty, unemployment and inequality in the province required cadres who were prepared to serve the people first.

The third-quarter labour force survey, released in October by Stats SA, revealed that there were 45,000 more unemployed people in the province by the end of September compared with June.

This pushed the province’s official  unemployment  rate up to 36.5%, the highest in SA, from 35.4%.

It meant that there were 805,000 unemployed people, aged 15 to 64, in the province at the end of September.

Disturbed by the figures, Mabuyane said these stats should concern all ANC deployees in government.

“We cannot rest while we know our province is the least developed and ranks high up with regards to unemployment, poverty and inequality

“We cannot continue with business as usual when every day we are losing scores of people to other provinces in search of better opportunities than what they can find here in the Eastern Cape.”