Cape Town - Nine days before the ANC’s critical 55th national elective conference, the party’s leadership has to deal with and try to extinguish factionalism in both its provincial and national structures.
The ANC in the Western Cape has launched an investigation into whether any of its members attended an anti-President Cyril Ramaphosa demonstration in Cape Town on Tuesday.
Provincial ANC spokesperson Sifiso Mtsweni slammed protesters who voiced their displeasure about Ramaphosa outside Parliament, where they expected MPs to begin the process for his impeachment after an independent panel found that he should account before an impeachment committee regarding the Phala Phala scandal.
Parliamentary deliberations were postponed at the 11th hour on Monday night, with MPs deferring proceedings to discuss the report physically next Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the ANC Women’s League provincial task team (PTT) bused in its own protesters to picket in support of Ramaphosa.
Mtsweni took exception with eNCA for flighting a headline which suggested that the provincial structure marched to Parliament to ask Ramaphosa to step aside.
The Cape Argus saw about 50 protesters carrying placards that read “Phala Phala dollars will kill the ANC” and “All presidents are equal”.
ANCWL PTT spokesperson Vuyokazi Malafi asked to be contacted after deadline hours.
Mtsweni said: “The (eNCA) headline is grossly misleading, malicious and is causing confusion in the public in its purported claims that the ANC in the Western Cape has taken a posture different from that taken in the previous meeting of the National Executive Committee (NEC).
“There is no structure of the ANC in the province that has approved nor mandated any of its members to march to Parliament,” insisted Mtsweni.
“The ANC in the province and the Dullah Omar region will launch an urgent investigation to find out if there are any ANC members who decided to march to Parliament when the ANC, as a unitary structure, has taken a decision on the parliamentary processes currently under way, which gave a mandate to its MPs to vote against the adoption of the Section 89 panel report while the president takes the matter on review.”
He distanced the ANC in the province from the protest.
“We align ourselves fully to the decision of the NEC. We call on all media houses and the eNCA, in particular, to verify its information with the ANC officially before publishing such misleading headlines.”
The divisions have reached to the national structures, with the national ANC office condemning treasurer-general Mashatile’s critics, who questioned how he conducted himself in the party’s National Executive Committee and National Working Committee meetings.
ANC spokesperson Pule Mabe said the party was concerned about media reports that party leaders were unhappy that Mashatile apparently didn’t protect Ramaphosa in the NEC meeting.
“We dismiss these baseless and unfounded claims categorically and urge members of the ANC to desist from spreading malicious rumours about leaders of the organisation,” he said.
He said the conduct was aimed at sowing divisions “at a time when we should be focusing our efforts on uniting the ANC”.
“Attempts to single out and character assassinate the person of the treasurer-general comrade Mashatile are divisive and clearly designed to drive a wedge between members on the eve of the all important 55th national conference,” Mabe said.
“The leadership structure of the ANC fully supports the work of the treasurer-general who has also been entrusted with running of the secretary general’s office including overseeing the day to day operations of the organisation.”
soyiso.maliti@inl.co.za