ANC disbands regional committee

THE ANC in the Eastern Cape has disbanded its Nelson Mandela Bay regional executive committee (REC) and will appoint a regional task team (RTT) to co-ordinate the work of the organisation, the provincial executive committee (PEC) said yesterday.

ANC provincial secretary Lulama Ngcukayitobi said the party had taken a decision after careful assessment of the region, and found the dysfunctional REC posed a risk to the entire organisation.

The provincial executive committee has had the fourth report so far on the assessment of the strength of that particular region in undertaking the responsibility of the party.

“We found that the region was incapable of making the 70% threshold of functioning branches,” Ngcukayitobi said.

He said the outbreak of a fight between Ward 60 ANC members that ended in the stabbing of its chairperson in full view of the REC members was the last straw.

“We took a decision to dissolve that particular REC and establish a cohesive, coherent and united RTT,” Ngcukayitobi said.

The provincial secretary said there was no truth to rumours that former deputy finance minister Mcebisi Jonas, whose name appeared on a list that went viral, was on the new structure.

“There is going to be a consultative process to find suitable men and women to form an inclusive task team, but we cannot stop people from having views and compiling their wish lists,” he said.

Ngcukayitobi said the regional task team would co-ordinate the work of the ANC in the lead-up to the 2019 general election, and to the election of the next regional structure.

He said the REC had not convened a regional general council to elect additional members, and that it had been without a chairperson since the removal of Andile Lungisa from that position in March last year.

Lungisa was barred from contesting a regional position at the time because he was a member of the PEC.

The ANC’s rules forbid members who are serving in higher structures from contesting in the party’s lower structures.