The task of uniting the party in the Eastern Cape is not that of the provincial executive alone, but national leaders’ efforts are also needed, ANC provincial boss Oscar Mabuyane says
Speaking at a provincial executive committee (PEC) meeting in Mthatha on Monday, Mabuyane said the task of uniting the ANC and its alliance structures would fail if the party did not deal with ill-discipline within the party.
He said some members still refused to accept the outcome of the eighth provincial conference, which took place in East London in 2017.
“The difficulty [following] any elective conference is that the organisation often finds itself between a [rock and a] hard place,” Mabuyane said.
“We must deal with ill-discipline while it shows its head.
“Those who did not support the election of the current leadership continue to define themselves along factional lines towards such conferences and so display high levels of unorganisational conduct.
“[They know] that any action taken against them will be interpreted as an act of purging those who differed with the status quo.”
His speech follows a decision handed down in June by a Johannesburg court to dismiss a case brought by Nelson Mandela Bay ANC members to disband the provincial executive committee.
Four applicants – Nomakaya Ntozini, Ntombekhaya Gunguluza, Nkululeko Mali and Mbulelo Geswindt – turned to the South Gauteng High Court in an attempt to force the ANC’s national leaders to implement recommendations made in the Sbu Ndebele report – particularly that the PEC be disbanded.
Mabuyane said no coherent effort had been made by the national executive committee (NEC) to resolve the impasse.
What had made matters worse was the lack of commitment displayed by some NEC deployees to the province.
He said this was noticeable in their failure to attend meetings.
Mabuyane said it was important that the ANC in the province made changes.
The Eastern Cape had become one of the worst-performing provinces in the country, he said.