Faction members in bid to collapse ANC rule in EC — Mabuyane

Ill-disciplined and factional ANC members are trying to collapse governance in Eastern Cape municipalities, provincial party boss Oscar Mabuyane has said.

In a speech sent to the media on Monday night, which he delivered at a special ANC provincial executive committee (PEC) meeting, a tough-talking Mabuyane said during the 2017 provincial conference where he beat former chair Phumulo Masualle for the right to lead the ANC, they resolved to decisively act against ill-discipline.

With regional conferences looming, Mabuyane said there were more “foreign tendencies”, and the leadership and authority of the PEC were being undermined.

“Processes are flouted in order to carry out directives of a faction and this happens because deployed comrades no longer receive their mandate from the organisation that deployed them; their centre is no longer the ANC but a faction to which they belong.

“Provincial government interventions meant at restoring stability and good governance are being deliberately frustrated and rejected by comrades who are hell-bent on having their way which, by the way, has nothing to do with the interests of the people and the communities they are elected to serve,” he said.

“We will not allow governance to be collapsed for self-serving motives and factional interests at the expense of our people.”

Mabuyane also criticised what he said was a plan to form a breakaway party led by a grouping calling itself radical economic transformation (RET) grouping.

The RET faction is believed to be led by ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule and has strong support in Nelson Mandela Bay with jailed former councillor Andile Lungisa having led it before his incarceration.

He described the RET grouping as the “highest form of ill-discipline that is hell-bent at undermining the leadership of the ANC elected at the 54th national conference”, which he said “should be confronted and defeated”.

In what could be seen as directing his words at former President Jacob Zuma and his supporters who have called for state capture commission chair deputy chief justice Raymond Zondo to recuse himself, while also demanding the commission be dissolved, Mabuyane said they would be forced to act against ANC members who undermine the 2017 Nasrec conference resolution on cracking down on corruption and on wrongdoers.

He said the PEC fully supported the state capture commission and other commissions.

Mabuyane also condemned the violence witnessed in Senekal, Free State, saying the killing of farm manager Brendin Horner should not be used for political mileage.

“The ANC must provide leadership over the situation and ensure that we prevent the looming violence that is being incited, and may lead to loss of many lives.”

This, as EFF leader Julius Malema has called for cowards to move aside and instructed party members to attack following the violent protest by farmers last week.

Interim DA leader John Steenhuisen has also described Malema as picking a fight with people whose anger was at a boiling point, warning that it could lead to unnecessary violence.

HeraldLIVE